Last month, SBG Ireland’s very own Artem Lobov stepped into the Octagon for the biggest fight of his career as he fought #4 ranked featherweight Cub Swanson in the main event of ‘UFC Fight Night: Nashville’.

Prior to the fight, Swanson went as far as to say that Lobov didn’t belong in the UFC. Following their hard-fought five round war which saw Swanson awarded the win via unanimous decision, Lobov’s stock has never been higher. While ‘The Russian Hammer’ may not see it that way, he is looking to secure his next fight in hopes of returning to the win column.

Although post-fight Artem Lobov earned the praise of fans, and his opponent, he isn’t focused on that. He spoke on The MMA Hour:

“I lost, so I don’t really see it probably that way,” Lobov said when asked about the positives in defeat. “To me, I was going into the fight to try and win, obviously. That’s why I called for the fight. And I generally thought that I could win. Obviously I didn’t, so I’m still trying to get over that.”

“No,” Lobov said. “Never. I would never look at any fight like that. To me, if I’m going in, I’m going in to win. If you don’t win, well that’s it. Obviously, I’m not gonna dwell on it. I’m not gonna cry about it. I’m a learner and I’m a go-getter. I have to look over the mistakes, I have the fix them and I’m gonna keep moving forward. And hopefully one day I’ll meet Cub again.”

In regards to his next fight, Lobov has his sights set on another man Cub Swanson recently defeated, Doo Ho Choi:

“I mean, why not?” Lobov said. “He was one of the guys that I called out originally. It was either him or Cub. Now we both lost to Cub, the two of us both went the distance, the two of us both got the Fight of the Night, so why not? It makes sense, no?”

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 4/5/2017.