Artem Lobov hasn’t competed in a professional MMA fight since departing the UFC after a loss to Michael Johnson at UFC Fight Night Moncton.
It would appear that Lobov wants to return to the promotion for one bout and that would come against Zubaira Tukhugov at UFC Fight Night Dublin, as the duo were supposed to meet at UFC Fight Night Moncton until Tukhugov was forced to withdrawal from the contest.
“I definitely would want to do that,” Lobov said to The Mac Life (via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “People talk about me fighting Zubaira. I’m still very much interested in that fight, still going to donate every single dollar from that fight to charity, and it would be good to do it in Dublin. All I would ask, I would love for just a one-fight deal. Like I said to the UFC is that I’m not going to be making any money off of this. This is not (about) money. For me, this is a fight that has to happen. I would just come in for a one-fight deal in Dublin, Ireland. It would make a lot of sense for them to have me on – on that card, and that’s it. One fight. I come in, we help the charity out, they get loads of money, so that’s good. They get a good fight for UFC Dublin and we get to settle our differences with Zubaira in the octagon. So I would certainly be interested in that.”
Lobov didn’t exactly have the best run in the UFC, picking up a 2-5-0 record in the promotion.
The reason that Lobov wants a one fight deal to face Tukhugov is that the fighter has other ventures he’d like to work on.
“The reason I say just one-fight deal is that I’m very, very keen and very set on competing in pro boxing, in bare-knuckle boxing, and in MMA,” Lobov said. “And obviously if I’m signed to UFC exclusively, I understand – it’s such a big promotion that this would just not work.”
There has been no word yet from the UFC or Tukhugov about putting the bout with Lobov together.
