Artem Lobov and Paulie Malignaggi went the distance at BKFC 6 and in the end, it was “The Russian Hammer” who emerged victorious.
There was a ton of bad blood going into the BKFC 6 main event. Lobov was slapped and spat on by Malignaggi in the buildup to their fight and many believed that there would be no mutual respect shown at the conclusion of BKFC 6. While Malignaggi didn’t agree with the decision, he did hug Lobov after the fight and shared some words with him.
Lobov & Malignaggi Comment Post-Fight
After the bout, Lobov told Ron Kruck that Malignaggi has his respect (via MMAFighting.com):
“It was an emotional fight, As a result, I came in a little bit on the back foot more than usual but I still pressed, I was still stalking him. That’s a nice decision win for me.
“To me, there is many people out there that talk a lot of s—t and then they don’t show up. Paulie he shows up. You can like him or hate him, but in terms of being a fighter, he showed up that time to the spar, both of them, and he showed up tonight to fight. So I always respect the fighter for that.”
When Kruck spoke to Malignaggi, “The Magic Man” said he is walking away from combat sports for good:
“Maybe just maybe this wasn’t meant to be. I’m 38 years old. I’m too old to start campaigning off of a loss. I would have done this again. I would have considered coming back. I thought I was winning pretty easily. I’m done.”
In addition to that quote, Malignaggi ripped the Florida State judges and questioned their experience with boxing matches. He also revealed that he believes he injured his hand in the second round.
