Tag Archives: lobov

Posted on 06/24/2019

By: Jesse Donathan

Things didn’t exactly go as planned this past weekend at Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) for Paulie Malignaggi, with “Magic Man” coming up short on the judge’s scorecards in a unanimous decision loss to former UFC mixed martial artist and Conor McGregor confidant Artem Lobov. The notoriously bad blood between McGregor and Malignaggi helped set the stage for Malignaggi’s showdown with “The Russian Hammer” Lobov, which ultimately found its roots in leaked sparring sessions to the press of selectively edited footage between the Irishmen and “Magic Man” depicting McGregor getting the better of the exchanges in the leadup to McGregor’s mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Bitter and embarrassed, Malignaggi has went on a public relations campaign to set the record straight about McGregor since and has had quite a bit to say about MMA’s fervent fanbase along the way. “I think of it like, thank god that this fan base in MMA is so (expletive) stupid that they actually have made this possible,” Malignaggi told MMAFighting.com. “They’re very cartoonish, very out there,” said Malignaggi in comparing mixed martial arts fans to their professional wrestling counterparts.

In the aftermath of Malignaggi’s “wafer-thin” loss to Lobov, mixed martial arts fans across the internet had a field day with the Brooklyn, New York native. The promotional ground work Malignaggi laid in the leadup to the fight with Lobov obviously effective, with Malignaggi reportedly being crushed by the fight world in the aftermath of his defeat. This was a public relations success for BKFC despite the otherwise lackluster main event performance and one which will surely pay dividends later down the line.

The first round between Malignaggi and Lobov was little more than a feeling out process, there wasn’t much in the way of action from either fighter and a pretty good case could be made for it being scored 10-10 as a result. Things would start to pick up in the second, with Malignaggi coming alive and putting his hands on Lobov’s face. The fact of the matter is the entire fight was kind of disappointing, but the second and third rounds belonged to Malignaggi who was the more active fighter in the ring. The last two rounds however were quite obviously Artem Lobov rounds, with the Russian showing a pulse at the beginning of the fourth stanza and doing enough to steal the round 10-9.

The fifth and final round was also obviously a Lobov round, with Malignaggi putting little together in the way of offense which may have been the result of his notoriously fragile hands breaking. Despite little to no offense, Malignaggi displayed great footwork but with his lack of offensive output it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion than it being a 10-9 Lobov round.

In determining the outcome of the fight, I would score it a draw personally though it likely does boil down to how one perceives the results of the opening two minutes of the fight. Unfortunately, the judges saw it differently with Artem Lobov winning a unanimous decision victory, leaving Malignaggi in disbelief, searching for answers. The former junior welterweight and welterweight champion reportedly signed a two-year contract with BKFC according to ESPN, but following his loss to Lobov Saturday night the former two-division champion once again hung up his gloves.

It was an uphill battle for Malignaggi from the start, the aging 38-year old former champion has a lot of miles on the road and is at the twilight of his career. Having already retired once, everyone knew Malignaggi didn’t have much left in the gas tank and as such leaving the arena Saturday night victorious without having stopped Lobov dead in his tracks simply wasn’t going to happen. Always a fighter to wear his heart on his sleeve, the vibrato coming from a retired but victorious Malignaggi in maligning the remaining fighters under BKFC contract wouldn’t have been nearly as much of a promotional success as the alternative. And the rest is history as they say with Malignaggi riding off into the sun set with some very hard pills to swallow for his efforts.

Interestingly, earlier in the night reports surfaced on social media indicating not everything was on the up-and-up at BKFC 6 prior to the main event. According to reports, “Rumor has it Paulie had something on his hands and got caught,” reads the social media post originating from former UFC juggernaut Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.

“Commission and president of Bare Knuckle seen rushing to the back where the locker rooms were once they heard about the incident…Came back with a disappointed look on their face,” reads another post from the verified Instagram account.

“If you’re going to hide something, this is the place,” said Freddie Roach in a November 12, 2010 NYTimes article titled, “Hand Wraps Draw Boxings Eye, and Scrutiny,” by author Greg Bishop. Though a bare knuckle contest, the athletes fighting under the BKFC banner were required to wear hand wraps for additional support.

Whether it was loaded wraps or not, a bareknuckle version of plaster of Paris, it’s tough to say. The fight obviously went on as scheduled and ultimately played out a success as social media was alive in dancing over Malignaggi’s grave after the former two-division world champion talked himself in front of the firing squad. Whether Malignaggi was purposely working the promotional angle or simply being himself, the end result was the same. “Magic Man” will be on the lips and tongues of fans for long to come as the road Malignaggi paved for BKFC continues to draw interest from both the boxing and mixed martial arts communities fascinated with the blast from the past.

Posted on 05/22/2019

By: Jesse Donathan

Holy Moly, Paulie! Did you really say that? According to a May 21, 2019 MMAFighting.com article titled, “Morning Report: Paulie Malignaggi attacks ‘piece of (expletive)’ MMA community, explains why he wants to put Artem Lobov in ‘a (expletive) coma’,” author Jed Meshew writes that former two time professional boxing champion Paulie Malignaggi told former UFC fighter and Conor McGregor confidant Artem Lobov that he was going to, “take my (expletive) out and (expletive) on you,” after he had defeated the game Russian fighter.

Malignaggi, the former Conor McGregor sparring partner who famously took issue with the selective video clips released to the public of his sparring sessions with McGregor by the Irishmen’s camp in the lead up to McGregor’s mega payday fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. reportedly spit on Lobov, threatening to put the Russian in a coma according to reports.

Author Jed Meshew would go on to write that according to the former champion, “Lobov and the mixed martial arts community have really disrespected my sport in a lot of ways; boxing, saying that we fight with pads on and it’s not a real fighting sport and what not, but we have all the deaths,” Malignaggi told FightHype.com.”

“We have more of the deaths by a long shot,” said Malignaggi. “We have more of the permanent damage by a long shot. This is not to diminish the danger of mixed martial arts or any other combat sport, but there is a reason why boxing has more deaths and more traumatic brain injuries in one night, because we are the most dangerous combat sport,” writes Meshew.

And I am not sure Malignaggi is going to find too many people willing to disagree with him, at least not anyone who knows what they’re talking about. According to mixed martial arts referee “Big” John McCarthy and Sean Wheelock on episode two of their December 09, 2015 podcast “Let’s Get it On!” the veteran mixed martial arts referee expressed a similar opinion to Malignaggi on the comparison’s between the two combat sports.

“MMA is more violent, but I will tell you that boxing is more damaging,” said McCarthy. “Overall, if you look at the sport boxing is incredibly damaging, because we really only have two targets that we attack. And 90% of the fighters go after the head 90% of the time. And so, we have just concussive blows to our head happening over and over and over and over again.”

In McCarthy’s estimation, “Our brain is the most important element that we have and so, if you’re going to say what’s the most damaging between all the sports, it would be boxing.”

According to MMAFighting.com, “At the end of the day, you can just [tap] and it’s over,” says Malignaggi of mixed martial arts. “In boxing, if you sit on your stool, you’ll never live it down the rest of your career.” Highlighting just a few differences between the two sports that may not always get airtime, but which are spot-on true, nonetheless.

Malignaggi has likely spent too much time on mixed martial arts message boards, which while moderated, are still thankfully the wild west of fan-based opinion. Though according to some conspiracy theorists, those same message boards are weaponized by various entities to include fighters and promotions alike to social engineer ideas and trains of thought.

In other words, Malignaggi might be surprised to find out who is in fact on the other end of some of the comments he has taken issue with. Usually just teenagers and young adults, there is a dark underbelly to the online world where a war of words instead of fisticuffs is waged by those with very partisan motives.

While Malignaggi is most certainly positioning for a potential fight and lucrative payday with Conor McGregor, a fight I would be very much in favor of seeing, it helps to understand this is the promotion game no matter how classless, yet real it may all seem. I’m sure Malignaggi’s mother didn’t raise him to talk this way, though it has certainly managed to capture the headlines however uncomfortable and unfortunate they may be.

Current WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder recently made waves when he threatened to beat opponent Dominic Breazeale to death in the ring. Seemingly in an attempt of one-upmanship, Malignaggi is riding the coat tails of Wilder’s success in an effort to be equally as outrageous and headline turning.

Unfortunately, the only place to go from here is down as the Springer like atmosphere continues to capture the public’s imagination and interest. As the saying goes in the world of promotion, there is no such thing as bad publicity. Just promising to have a good, clean fight isn’t going to keep the lights on. The public wants to see that the athletes have bad intentions and the fighters feed off the publicity this kind of behavior generates as a result. Its business as usual in the fight promotion game, only I wouldn’t mind seeing a little bit more tact and class.

Posted on 05/21/2019

By: Michael Kane

Paulie Malignaggi takes on former UFC fighter Artem Lobov on June 22nd in Tampa, Florida.

The former world champion has stated he wants to put Lobov in a coma, and urinate on him.

After a lively press conference in which Malignaggi spat on Lobov he explained why he has so much disdain not only for Lobov, but the whole MMA community.

“Lobov and the mixed martial arts community have really disrespected my sport in a lot of ways; boxing, saying that we fight with pads on and it’s not a real fighting sport and what not, but we have all the deaths,” Malignaggi told FightHype.com. “We have more of the deaths by a long shot. We have more of the permanent damage by a long shot. This is not to diminish the danger of mixed martial arts or any other combat sport, but there is a reason why boxing has more deaths and more traumatic brain injuries in one night, because we are the most dangerous combat sport.”

It seems weird to essentially boast that boxing is more dangerous and more people have been killed in the ring.

Malignaggi then moves on to talk about his favourite subject, Conor McGregor.

Malignaggi had been called in to help Conor McGregor train for the Floyd Mayweather fight only for sparring footage to be leaked. Malignaggi has been on a one man crusade ever since against the Irishman.

“I don’t care how many 360 roundhouse kicks you can do, at the end of the day you can just [tap] and it’s over. In boxing, if you sit on your stool, you’ll never live it down the rest of your career. In MMA, Mr. Tap Machine Conor does it every fight. He’s done it what, three out of his last four fights? He’s not Notorious McGregor, he’s tapout McGregor but at the end of the day, he’s still the biggest star there. It’s more accepting to save your life. In MMA, they praise these guys. He’s over there selling whiskey and people are buying it. In boxing, if a guy quit as much as this guy quit and he tried to make any product, they’d kick him in his ass and say get the f*ck out of here with your bum product.”

McGregor has tapped out twice in his last four fights. It also seems Malignaggi has overlooked all the knock outs that also happen in MMA to focus on the tap outs that happen. In essence MMA and boxing are two different sports with some similar aspects, so unfair to compare.

“At days’ end, the reason for me to say ‘Put him in a coma’ or ‘kill him’ or whatever, listen, you don’t ever want, wish bad things on anybody, but honestly, would I feel bad if he wound up there? No, I wouldn’t feel bad because he disrespected all of the families and all of the people that I’ve known personally who have gone through this,” Malignaggi said.

“When your piece of sh*t community and your piece of sh*t people talk about ‘we fight with pads on and now you’re in a dangerous sport like MMA,’ when nothing of the sort happens to you which is why you have a circus of a fanbase because it’s like wrestling. At the end of the day, no matter what happens to you guys, [tapping] assures you you’re gonna see that guy next week. [Tapping] assure you you’re gonna see that guy in a few months. In boxing, you don’t have those assurances so there’s a respect level even to the trash talk that we have and it’s being surpassed now, it’s being overcome with this garbage that we have from this other community. For me, I think the way you solve it, seeing one of their own in a coma, seeing one of their own in a f*cking coffin, then you say, ‘You know what, this sh*t is not a joke.’

“Fighters risk their lives, no matter what combat sport they’re in. You’re risking your life getting in there, bro. Your life can change in one night. But no other sport does it change like boxing. Boxing does it to everyone and boxing does it at all levels, from the lower level to the world-class level. So there’s a reason that I talk the way I talk around this piece of sh*t and around the piece of sh*t people that he has around him. Because there’s a respect that needs to be earned and there’s a respect that needs to be given. So maybe since they don’t understand and know how to give it, maybe him winding up in a f*cking coma will make the whole community understand. And hopefully he wakes up from that coma if I put him in it and even then he’ll understand what I’m talking about.”

It would seem Malignaggi is emotionally invested in this fight. The fact he can’t get retribution against McGregor seems to be driving him crazy. He has a chance to take on McGregor’s training partner on June 22nd on BKFC 6.