Artem Lobov is still not letting TJ Dillashaw off the hook for cheating.
Dillashaw makes his return to mixed martial arts this weekend at UFC Vegas 32 when he collides with Cory Sandhagen in a bantamweight headliner.
It will be the former 135-pound champion’s first fight since popping for EPO in 2019 and getting a two-year suspension as a result.
And while others are letting it remain in the past no matter how heinous they find Dillashaw’s actions, Lobov isn’t. In fact, he is still annoyed at the fact that Dillashaw cheated and is getting the opportunity to return.
He also believes Dillashaw should have lost his entire fight purse as well.
“Absolutely, I recently heard Mike Tyson talk about PEDs in sports — it’s assault, you should get criminal charges for that,” Lobov told The Mac Life when asked if he still holds it against Dillashaw. “On top of that, I would like to add the money should be taken from him. I mean let’s be honest, if they caught him right before the fight, the fight wouldn’t have happened, he wouldn’t have been paid. If they caught him after, then why should he still keep the money? He got that illegally. If you win in a casino by cheating, do you keep the winnings? No, they get taken off you.
“That should be the same story here, then that would be a punishment. He got the fight, they caught him, he got paid, then he had some surgeries that he needed to do, he took care of that so he would have been out anyway. Took a little breather and now he’s back so where is the f*cking punishment? This is such a serious, serious offence.”
Lobov: Real Men Fight Fair
Lobov — who returns to bare knuckle action against Denys Berinchyk at the Mahatch FC event in Kyiv on Saturday — also believes Dillashaw will remain tainted forever.
“… I will fight and look to do damage but I will do it fair and square,” Lobov said. “This is what real men, real warriors, real fighters do. That’s why we have weight classes because we’re trying to level the playing field but some scumbags aren’t man enough to compete fair. They need some advantage.
“… To me, he will forever be tainted. To me, all his achievements mean nothing.”
Dillashaw has gone on record stating that he only took EPO to help him with the weight cut to 125 and that it hurt him more than it benefited him.
But Lobov isn’t convinced and believes he’s been on PEDs a lot longer.
“Would he be the same fighter without PEDs? Hell no, look at his style,” Lobov added. “He’s relying on that. You’ve seen what happened to him without PEDs at the end of The Ultimate Fighter. He got sparked f*cking out.”
You can watch the full interview below:
