Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi and Artem “The Russian Hammer” Lobov squared off in the bare knuckle boxing circle in one of the most anticipated grudge matches in all of combative sports.
The fight took place at BKFC 6 on Saturday, June 22, 2019 live from the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa, Florida.
The two combatants were at each other with insults leading up to the fight. Paulie spit and slapped Lobov during pre-fight promotional events and made Lobov even more motivated to punch the former two-time world boxing champion.
The bad blood all started over a sparring session with UFC star Conor McGregor. Malignaggi felt disrespected by footage of him getting dropped by the Irish southpaw leading up to his big boxing event with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The fight started with Paulie showing superior ring generalship. Lobov with his short reach just couldn’t reach Paulie.
It was a tactical match with Paulie the former champion turning and slipping a lot of Lobov’s wide shots.
Things started picking up in round four when Lobov’s corner advised him to be more aggressive because Paulie was scared to get hit.
The entire round was Lobov moving forward and being more aggressive with Paulie landing jabs both fighters were cut open with blood dripping.
The fifth and final around was hard to score Lobov pressed forward but Paulie still continued off the back foot.
The fight ended with all three judges cards 48-47 all in favor of Artem “The Russian Hammer” Lobov.
The judges favored the aggression of Lobov over the slick boxing defense of Malignaggi.
