It was always going to kick off but, when it did, there were more insults than blows thrown.
The third leg of the Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour crash-landed into Brooklyn on Thursday night and we had our first dust-up. Artem Lobov was one of the men from the Conor McGregor camp that got involved and his take on the scuffle was certainly memorable.
Of the three press conferences so far, Brooklyn was the worst as both Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. flagged before squaring off and heading off for their private jets.
The barney came about when Owen Roddy – McGregor’s striking coach – led his team onto the main stage to intercept Mayweather’s ever encroaching posse of minders, assistants, coaches and hangers on.
Scuffle!!
Owen Roddy involved. Mayweather skipping off up the stage pic.twitter.com/VH4Vqf13hu
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 14, 2017
Following the press conference, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani caught up with Roddy, Dillon Dannis and Artem Lobov, who are all helping ‘The Notorious’ prepare for his August 26 bout.
Lobov has hardly set the UFC alight since making his debut in the promotion two years ago. Last night, though, he showed a glimpse of that Class A trash-talking that has won McGregor so much acclaim. His targets were these two bucks, Mayweather’s bodyguards:
McGregor has taken to calling both me “juice-heads” but Lobov’s description was much more fitting. He said:
“We walked in front of them and that was for their own safety because if we didn’t, Conor was going to go for them, and then what?
“They all look big and tough but let’s be honest here, they can’t fight. If this came down to a real fight, their arms and legs would be thrown all over Brooklyn.”
Lobov added: “Floyd is the one who is supposed to be fighting Conor so why the f**k does he need his Jersey Shore f**king rejects over there? That shows you fear. He didn’t want to go to Conor and go face to face.”
We’re enjoying the developing sub-plots on this compelling world tour.
