Artem Lobov on ‘diva’ Paulie Malignaggi: ‘I’ll box the ears off him’
Conor McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov is now trying to line up a fight against Paulie Malignaggi.
Things aren’t looking any better between the Conor McGregor camp and Paulie Malignaggi. Malignaggi stated on Monday that all the bad blood that accumulated over the past weeks only leads to him fighting McGregor sometime in the near future.
It was, of course, quite expected for McGregor’s teammates to want in on the action as well. In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, UFC featherweight Artem Lobov issued his own challenge to “Magic Man.”
“If he wants to fight, I’m down to fight. I’ll box the ears off him, no problem.”
During McGregor’s media workout on Friday, “The Russian Hammer” branded Malignaggi a “diva” for the latter’s previous statements about supposed “mistreatments” on other sparring partners. Lobov said he got some flak for it, but argued that he was merely telling the truth.
“The reason why I called him a diva, and a lot of people have given me criticism over that, the reason I said that is because I’m not telling lies. I always stick to the facts.”
“He was given a wage that he was happy with,” Lobov said. “He was given a car, he was put in a house and he was provided food, three meals a day actually, from a very nice restaurant. What else can you ask for?”
As for the sparring videos that Dana White released which created a lot of stir, Lobov feels Malignaggi’s tone will change after the August 26th fight.
“Paulie doesn’t want to admit that now, because it’s not cool yet, Conor is seen as the amateur in the boxing world. I think when Conor beats Mayweather, suddenly Paulie will come out and he will admit that he was spanked because it will be seen as normal,” Lobov said.
“Now, he just can’t accept that this newcomer absolutely destroyed him in the ring when he was a two-time world champion.”
Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. happens on Saturday, August 26th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.