Brendan Schaub doesn’t believe Artem Lobov vs. Paulie Malignaggi lived up to expectations, but it isn’t all doom and gloom.
BKFC 6 took place inside the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa. Headlining the card was a grudge match between Lobov and Malignaggi. In the end, Lobov was awarded the unanimous decision victory.
Former UFC heavyweight and current Showtime personality Schaub spoke to Luke Thomas on “The MMA Hour.” During his appearance, Schaub said he scored the fight for Malignaggi:
“I thought it could’ve went either way. I kind of edged Paulie out with three rounds. I thought he did enough to win three rounds. Wasn’t the excitement and the fireworks I was hoping for. I thought Paulie fought very — kind of timid. He fought very boxer-ish. Especially only having five rounds. He started off at like a 12-round pace. I thought he was very slow, methodical, kind of outclassed him, outpointed him just throwing jabs. I thought ‘alright if this what he wants to do, that’s great.’”
Brendan Schaub went on to say that while he thought the fight didn’t necessarily live up to expectations, he still gave kudos to BKFC.
“Then Artem was really hesitating. You could see he couldn’t get Paulie’s timing down. He was kind of whiffing. I don’t know, I thought it was weird exchange. I thought the whole thing was kind of awkward. I can see how you gave it to Artem. I wasn’t mad at the decision. As much as I like to make fun of bare-knuckle, I thought the pacing was good. I don’t know what the broadcast was like cause I didn’t have volume, but I thought the pacing of the show was good. I thought the overall product was not terrible.”
With the win, Lobov is now 2-0 in bare-knuckle boxing. During his post-fight speech, Lobov made it clear that he’s gunning for BKFC gold.
What did you make of the Artem Lobov vs. Paulie Malignaggi bout?