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MMA

22nd Oct 2017

Artem Lobov receives exciting fight offer shortly after retirement tease

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Ben Kiely

If Artem Lobov decides to retire, you have to support his decision. However, once that day comes, the ‘Russian Hammer’ will be missed.

Artem Lobov is riding successive losses for the second time in his UFC tenure after being comprehensively beaten by Andre Fili in Gdansk on Saturday.

Conor McGregor was in the stadium to support his training partner, but his attempted coaching from the crowd was completely shut down by referee Marc Goddard, who put in an excellent shift on the night.

Lobov survived a thunderous head kick in the first round to see the contest out until the final buzzer, but Fili’s movement and wrestling prowess saw him score a unanimous decision victory. All three judges scored the fight 30-27 in favour of the Team Alpha Male man.

It was clearly a tough loss for Lobov to take, as afterwards, he hinted at a possible retirement on social media.

As every MMA fan knows though, Lobov always has a target on his back. Unsurprisingly, his tweet didn’t go unnoticed by a fellow UFC featherweight who has beef with him.

If he doesn’t manage to get that fight against highly-touted featherweight prospect Zabit Magomedsharipov, Charles Rosa would only be thrilled to duke it out with Lobov at a later date.

Ever the showman, Lobov let his acerbic tongue spit venom with his response, claiming that the ‘easy beach life’ made Rosa soft.

In Rosa’s eyes though, the only way to settle the feud is inside the Octagon. They may not respect each other now, but as McGregor would say, respect is earned through battle.

Although Rosa is 2-3 under the UFC banner, his three defeats came against top-tier opponents and all received the Fight of the Night accolade.

He dropped his promotional debut to Dennis Siver in the German’s last fight before taking on McGregor. He was also pipped to a split decision by rising star Yair Rodriguez but was stopped by the undefeated Shane Burgos in his last trip to the Octagon.