Artem Lobov faced Denys Berinchyk in a bare-knuckle fight at the Mahatch FC event. This was Lobov’s fourth bare-knuckle fight, having earlier won 2 and lost 1. Lobov lost this fight via a 4th round TKO and has since decided to retire from combat sports.
Going into the fight Berinchyk was being touted as the favorite as even though he was making his bare-knuckle debut, he is a former Olympic medalist and a world university boxing champion. As Lobov lost the fight, he first hinted towards retirement during the post-fight interview. VMTV.co.uk reported his comments.
He said, “I knew that Denys is a high-class fighter, So I wanted to fight him. Why go out [against who] knows who? If I go out, then I try against the strongest and aim for the stars. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll be close to the moon. Congratulations, Denys, it was a great honor for me to perform here. Most likely, I will [retire]. There is no fire in the heart that there used to be.”
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Today, the Russian partner of Conor McGregor, Artem Lobov announce his retirement from Combat Sports after Lost a fight to Denis Berinchik at Mahatch FC today. With 13-15 in MMA and 2-1 in Bare Knuckle he lose by TKO in fifth round. pic.twitter.com/b5HCFXjYzj
— Bruno Massami (Бруно Массами) (@BrMassami) July 24, 2021
The combat sports veteran has been a professional MMA fighter since 2010. ‘The Russian Hammer’ has a professional MMA record of 13-15 and last competed in the UFC back in 2018.
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Following the fight, combat sports reporter Bruno Massami confirmed the report via his Twitter account. He wrote, “Today, the Russian partner of Conor McGregor, Artem Lobov announce his retirement from Combat Sports after Lost a fight to Denys Berinchyk at Mahatch FC today. With 13-15 in MMA and 2-1 in Bare Knuckle, he loses by TKO in the fifth round.”
Looking back at Artem Lobov’s MMA career
Before going into bare-knuckle fighting in 2019, Lobov was an MMA fighter. The fighter competed in various platforms like the Cage Warriors and the UFC. ‘The Russian Hammer’ was also a cast member of The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGregor vs. Team Faber.
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Lobov was at his best in 2016, defeating Chris Avila and Teruto Ishihara in successive UFC fights. However, since then the fighter lost 3 UFC fights and ultimately left the UFC back in 2018. And now the fighter has ended his storied career and has decided to leave combat sports for good.
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