Close friend and sparring partner of Conor McGregor, Artem Lobov, does not think that in the third fight against his teammate Dustin Poirier he will last more than two rounds.
Given his affinity for bareknuckle fighting, Artem Lobov was the first guest to appear on a new podcast hosted by Lethwei star Dave Leduc entitled, ‘Bareknuckle Uncensored.’
“Conor is a very, very smart fighter. I just feel the last fight he maybe took it a little bit lightly and thought, ‘I’ll just show up and do what I do and destroy him.’ Not only that, he was already mentally and physically getting ready for a boxing fight so he wasn’t thinking leg kicks … No MMA. He just thought it was going to be the same way as the first fight, ”Artem Lobov added.”
Lobov went on to add that, “We have to give credit to Dustin. He’s done his homework. He’s improved a lot since the first fight and he did a good job. But I think now when Conor is switched on, he knows what’s up. His full focus is on this fight. He’s studied him, he looked at what the issues were in the second fight and honestly when Conor shows up like that? There’s no stopping him. So I see him stopping Dustin early, first, maybe second round. I want to say first. My prediction is first round but it could go into the second. “
After departing the UFC in 2018, Lobov has found a home at BKFC. ‘The Russian Hammer’ produced two impressive unanimous decision victories over Jason Knight and Paulie Malignaggi before going on to lose a rematch with Knight in 2019.