Conor McGregor’s teammate-turned-enemy has leveled a big allegation against BKFC.
While some are still holding out hope of the former two-division UFC champion making his return to the Octagon, McGregor has appeared all-in on ventures away from his fighting career instead.
Among the most prominent is the Irishman’s role as part-owner of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, a bare-knuckle boxing promotion that has been going from strength to strength in recent years.
The likes of Mike Perry, Eddie Alvarez, and McGregor have boosted the organization by attaching their names to it, but one former fighter has a bone to pick with BKFC.
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Artem Lobov accuses BKFC of not paying him in full for Paulie Malignaggi win
Among the most notable names to feature in the early days of BKFC was Artem Lobov, an ex-UFC fighter who gained prominence as a teammate of McGregor’s during the Dubliner’s rise to multi-weight success on MMA’s biggest stage.
Lobov could not find similar success inside the Octagon, instead amassing a 2-5 record across seven UFC fights. He did, however, get the chance to settle one of McGregor’s feuds when Lobov shared the BKFC ring with Paulie Malignaggi.
‘The Russian Hammer’ upset the former WBA welterweight champion in the main event of BKFC 6 in 2019. But six years on, Lobov said on The Ariel Helwani Show that he has still yet to be fully paid by the organization for that event.
“Funny you say this, Ariel,” Lobov said when asked if he could return to BKFC. “There could be opportunities for me to come back, but (BKFC) still owe me money. You know my fight with Paulie Malignaggi? I never got my pay-per-view money.
“David Feldman knows that it made 200,000 pay-per-views. He told me, ‘Look, you have to wait for the pay-per-view, eight months or whatever before we pay you.’ So I waited that, then I was messaging, messaging, messaging. He was like, ‘Sorry, we just forgot, we are going to pay you.’
“Then I finally got my legal team to contact him. What he said…’Look, we love Artem, of course we are going to pay him. Unfortunately, at this time we have reinvested all the money back into (BKFC). We want to make it as big as possible…we need to continue to reinvest. Once we are able to finally get some money out of it, of course we are going to pay him.’
“So I am waiting for this. I think Dave is a man of his word. I think he will pay me. It is about $300,000 that they owe me.”
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Artem Lobov and Conor McGregor are not on good terms
Suffice it to say, Lobov can likely forget any chance of a friendly phone call from McGregor to clear up his payment claim.
Lobov and McGregor are on bad terms years since their time as teammates at the SBG Ireland gym. Their feud went public when ‘The Russian Hammer’ sued the Irish star to claim a stake in his Proper No. Twelve whiskey brand.
Lobov took credit for McGregor’s brand, insisting that he came up with the idea. The ex-UFC fighter admitted he had turned down a $1 million offer from ‘The Notorious’ after the brand’s success, and it was reported that Lobov is now seeking five percent of the proceeds received when McGregor sold Proper No. Twelve for $600 million.
The court hearing was due to take place this past May but was delayed to October after the case was “fundamentally changed” from what was originally pleaded, per Sunday World.