Artem Lobov is off Saturday’s UFC 223 card.
The UFC pulled the featherweight from his UFC Fight Pass featured bout against Alex Caceres, promotion president Dana White told reporters in New York on Thursday (via MMAjunkie.com’s Mike Bohn).
Lobov will not be competing on Saturday night in Brooklyn because of a chaotic scene caused by his teammate, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. The Irish superstar made a surprise appearance at Barclays Center directly following Thursday’s media day. He was seen in multiple videos with several members of Team McGregor trashing a backstage area and throwing an object at a bus that was transporting fighters from media day to the host hotel.
Per White, Lobov was involved in Thursday’s events.
UFC lightweight Michael Chiesa, who is currently slated to face Anthony Pettis at UFC 223, suffered a laceration on his face in the incident, per MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. Other fighters on the bus were “shaken up,” per Helwani.
Lobov has not yet commented publicly on the news. It isn’t clear at this time whether Caceres will receive his show money for the cancelled matchup.
Lobov is riding a two-fight losing streak. He most recently suffered a decision loss to Andre Fili. Prior to that, he was outpointed by longtime 145-pound contender Cub Swanson in a UFC main event last year. Lobov nearly left the UFC to try out boxing after the Fili bout — that was because he didn’t expect to get another shot in the big leagues of MMA.
UFC 223 takes place at Barclays Center this weekend and features a lightweight title bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and featherweight titleholder Max Holloway.