We’d certainly pay to see this one.
Artem Lobov has made no secret of the fact that he has a problem with Matt Brown and his comments following last month’s UFC Fight Night 81.
SBG’s Lobov, who meets Alex White this weekend, has explained why he took umbrage with Brown’s post-fight tweet.
Biased commentary. @TJDillashaw won 4-1 at least
— Matt Brown (@IamTheImmortal) January 18, 2016
“That started from him being disrespectful to Dominick Cruz,” Lobov said. “He tweeted something saying that TJ won 4-1, at least, which basically implied that Dominick didn’t win a single round and that it was a complete robbery which wasn’t the case.
“It was a close fight, it was a very good fight to watch but you have to beat the champion to be the champion and Dominick was the real champion coming into the fight. He never lost the belt. He got injured and has been through so much. And I felt that was very disrespectful from Matt Brown.
“Especially given the fact that he wasn’t sticking up for a lifelong teammate. He was sticking up for someone he’s getting paid to train with and they’ve been training together for what? Two weeks? What is this? Love at first sight?”
.@IamTheImmortal You get paid to train together….do you get a bonus to say that?? #TeamSnakeInTheGrass
— Artem Lobov (@RusHammerMMA) January 18, 2016
Lobov competed at lightweight during the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter but has moved down to his favoured featherweight division for the Alex White bout, which takes place on the Fight Pass prelims of UFC Fight Night 82.
That’s not stopping ‘The Russian Hammer’ from moving up to welterweight next time around and he’s revealed that, with a win over White, he’s going to request to be matched up with Brown.
“My issue was with Matt being disrespectful to Dominick,” Lobov continued. “That’s why I made my comments. I’ve always been that guy. I’m not just going to walk past if I see something wrong going on, not that Dominick needs my help but there was no way I could have ignored Matt being so disrespectful to a great champion, a great role model and somebody who has been through so much.
“I just voiced my opinion and whenever I say something to someone, I feel I can say whatever I want because if they don’t like it and they want to see me in that octagon then I’ll be there. No matter who it is or what weight class it is… Even at heavyweight.
“The way I am planning now, if everything goes well with Alex White and I don’t get injured, then the Matt Brown fight is the fight I’ll ask for next.”
But first comes Alex White, a 10-2 featherweight who has just suffered back-to-back defeats in the UFC, and Lobov is well aware that the pair could be fighting for their jobs.
“I feel that this is the case, that whoever loses this fight goes out but I feel no pressure here. When you’ve constantly fought the high level of opponents that I have then it just becomes another fight to you.
“It’s always been pressure. I’ve gone to people’s backyards and fought. Sometimes I’ve showed up to fights and the commission guy has been my opponent’s coach or his two best friends are the judges. This has happened to me so many times so nothing fazes me anymore. I walk in there and I do what I’ve got to do.
“I feel this fight (against Alex White) will go the same way as the Martin Svensson fight (on TUF 22).
“I don’t see him making it out of the second round but I’ll be hoping for a first round knockout.”
Watch Artem in action at UFC Fight Night: Hendricks vs. Thompson live on UFC Fight Pass from 11:15pm GMT on Saturday, Feb 6 or watch the main card live on BT Sport (part of the Setanta Pack in Ireland) from 1am GMT
