Artem Lobov Beat Paulie Malignaggi In A Bare Knuckle Fight

Artem Lobov ended his rivalry with former boxer Paulie Malignaggi by beating him on a unanimous points decision as the American made his debut for Bare Knuckle FC.

Former UFC fighter Lobov and former boxer Malignaggi both joined the bare knuckle fighting promotion last year and their respective pasts with Conor McGregor threw them into an inevitable rivalry.

On Saturday night the two men faced in Florida, headlining BKFC 6, with Lobov coming out on top 48-47 on all three judges scorecards.

After the fight the Russian said, "It was an emotional fight, As a result, I came in a little bit on the back foot more than usual but I still pressed, I was still stalking him. That's a nice decision win for me.

"To me, there is many people out there that talk a lot of s-t and then they don't show up. Paulie he shows up. You can like him or hate him, but in terms of being a fighter, he showed up that time to the spar, both of them, and he showed up tonight to fight. So I always respect the fighter for that."

But former WBA welterweight champion Malignaggi wasn't best pleased, thinking he'd won the fight, and hinted his first foray into bare knuckle fighting might also be his last, saying, "Maybe just maybe this wasn't meant to be.

"I'm 38 years old. I'm too old to start campaigning off of a loss. I would have done this again. I would have considered coming back. I thought I was winning pretty easily. I'm done"

Malignaggi's feud with Lobov's teammate Conor McGregor started when the Irishman sparred with the American ahead of his professional boxing debut with Floyd Mayweather.

McGregor revealed he'd beaten up the boxer before releasing the footage, and later composing a thread of 17 tweets of pictures of the sparring.

When the American moved to Bare Knuckle FC he got involved with Lobov, the man who was threatened by Khabib Nurmagomedov to kick off the UFC champion's feud with McGregor, and at the pre fight press conference Malignaggi spat at his opponent.

A win on Saturday night for the American might have given hope to a future fight with McGregor, either bare knuckle or boxing, but with the 38 year old seemingly retired from both sports now, on the back of the Lobov loss and his loss to Sam Eggington in boxing in March 2017, that looks unlikely now.