Artem Lobov Ready To Punish Former Boxing Champ Paulie Malignaggi At BKFC 6 This Weekend
Paulie Malignaggi and Artem Lobov will face each other in the main of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships (BKFC) 6 event this Saturday (June 22, 2019) from Tampa, Florida. A few weeks back Pauli embroiled in trash talk with UFC featherweight export, Artem Lobov and even at one point, former boxer spits on ‘Russian Hammer.’
Now the pair have a chance to settle their differences this weekend. Lobov will be making his second appearance at BKFC meanwhile this will be Paulie’s debut fight.
In his recent interview, Lobov says he always look up for biggest and highest challenges, but that’s not a case with Malignaggi showdown. (h/t BJ Penn)
“It ticks all the boxes for me except one. I always seek the highest challenge, the biggest challenge. I always look to truly challenge myself. When I was in the UFC I challenged some of the biggest guys in the world. When I was fighting in Europe I did the same. Anywhere I was, I always seek the hardest challenge. I win some, I lose some but I always take the hardest challenge.
“This is not the case this time, this is personal, this is about settling a score. This is about punishing someone that’s done a lot of wrongs. Somebody that’s been running his mouth a bit too much, somebody that’s been behaving like an animal, not like a human. Somebody that’s been so disrespectful on so many levels. I have to make this right, that’s what this is about.
“Fighting Paulie Malignaggi in bare-knuckle is not a challenge for me. He hasn’t got a clue what he’s in for here. He’s just preparing for a boxing, twelve-round fight. It’s not that.”
‘I want to punish this guy.’
Paulie had a history with Lobov’s teammate Conor Mcgregor as former boxing champ was sparring partner for Mcgregor when “Notorious” was training for his Floyd Mayweather boxing fight back in 2017. Footage of their sparring surfaced which showed that brash Irish champ was putting Malignaggi on his ass, which led to a bitter break up. Now Lobov wants to settle the business for everyone and has a game plan to batter Paulie.
“I want to hurt this guy extra hard, I want to punish this guy extra long. I want to play with this guy as much as I want,” he said. “I want to get him for everything that he has said. I want to get him for everything that he has done — not just for me, but for everyone around the world.”
Who do you think will emerge victoriously this Saturday?
