It's 2017 and Artem Lobov may very well be one fight away from a UFC title shot.
After losing his first two fights in the promotion, Lobov bounced back with two consecutive wins against Chris Avila and Teruto Ishihara respectively. His next trip to the Octagon will be as a UFC headliner against the fourth-ranked fighter in the featherweight division, Cub Swanson.
Swanson has it all to lose and not much to gain by taking on the "Russian Hammer" at UFC Nashville. Following his stunning performance in arguably the greatest featherweight fight ever against Doo Ho Choi at UFC 206, he may have been able to wait it out for a title shot, but instead, he took a fight against unranked Lobov.
The pay-off for Swanson - a main event slot for the first time since November 2014. A chance for redemption after the last five rounder he had ended with Frankie Edgar submitting him via neck-crank.
For a while though, it looked like the main incentive for Swanson to agree to fight Lobov was off the table after reports began circulating that a welterweight showdown between Demian Maia and Jorge Masvidal had become the event's new headline act.
https://twitter.com/CubSwanson/status/836313109945987072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Swanson did not approve of these rumblings that his fight had been bumped down the bill.
Following his meme poking fun at the debacle over the wrong movie being announced as Best Picture at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night, he reiterated that he had signed to fight Lobov over 25 minutes, not 15.
https://twitter.com/CubSwanson/status/836316831035994113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
As luck would have it, Lobov was scheduled to appear on the MMA Hour a few hours after the reports began doing the rounds.
While Swanson seemed to disapprove wholeheartedly of losing his main event status, Lobov couldn't have reacted more differently. To put it as bluntly as possible, he couldn't have given a fuck.
"I've seen that, but I'm not too sure. I haven't heard anything. That makes no difference to me. All it means to me is that my fight is going to be on a little bit earlier in the night."
In Lobov's eyes, he's still going to do his job as a fighter, regardless of the start time. He admitted he was just content at getting a chance to prove himself by taking on one of the toughest fighters in the division.
"I don't really care where I am, whether I'm the first fight of the night or the last, it doesn't matter. I'm in the UFC because I wanted to take on the best guys in the world, and I'm moving in the right direction now. So, I'm happy about that."
"I don't really care. The preparation was going to be the same either way. It would have been nice to go the five rounds, because I've never done that before, but it makes no difference really, to be honest."
Luckily for Swanson, the crisis was averted.
https://twitter.com/CubSwanson/status/836330661216542720
All that over nothing.
