Artem Lobov and Paulie Malignaggi, who met in the main event of BKFC 6 on Saturday night, seem to have found something they agree on: the officiating for the Tampa, Florida card left a lot to be desired.
Speaking at the BKFC 6 post-fight press conference, Malignaggi sounded off on the ring-side judges, lambasting them for scoring the fight in Lobov’s favor.
“I pretty much got the worst of everything because I got a shit decision and I made a tic-tac-toe board out of his face with my left hand,” Paulie Malignaggi said (via MMA Fighting). “Look at my face, I got hit literally in one clinch. In one clinch, I got hit and that’s it. I took a couple of shots in that one clinch that he got me, I thought I did a pretty good job in clinches other than that, and really nothing else landed. I was very comfortable boxing.
“Luckily, I have experience fighting with one hand from earlier in my career, breaking my right hand so many times, so even when my right hand was gone I thought I boxed very well in three, four, and five. He got me in the clinch in three, but other than that I thought four and five—I mean five he didn’t land at all. I was popping him with jabs and check left hooks constantly. You want to give him four, I don’t think you can, but I guess if they want to give it to him.”
Artem Lobov, on the other hand, criticized the referee for limiting his use of the clinch — one of the few areas where he was perceived to have a clear advantage over Malignaggi at BKFC 6.
“I was a little bit surprised with the way the referee kind of worked the clinch. He was on top of me right away, trying to break up the clinch,” Lobov said (via MMA Fighting). “If you look at some of the boxing fights, even in the boxing fights where the clinch is not allowed, they allow people to work a little longer in the clinch than they did in this where the clinch is allowed.
“The one time where Paulie’s talking about where I caught him and I was landing shots and then the ref comes on top of me and pulls me off. I’m like what’s going on and he says ‘you’ve got to be landing shots’ and I’m like what the f—k was I doing do you think? I was landing shots. I was throwing shots.”
What did you think of the judging and refereeing at BKFC 6?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 6/23/2019.