Much of the focus in the combat sports world last weekend was on the Artem Lobov vs. Paulie Malignaggi main event at Saturday’s (June 22, 2019) BKFC 6.
Fan-favorite Lobov was able to outlast Malignaggi by unanimous decision (watch highlights here) from the Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa. The fight was largely deemed a lackluster affair compared to Lobov’s previous fight against Jason Knight at BKFC 5. The ultra-personal trash talk leading up to the fight didn’t necessarily help things either, as it was tough to live up to barring an all-out war.
Former boxing champ Malignaggi was never really known for slugfests, and his bout with Lobov didn’t deliver one. That left many onlookers with a bad taste in their mouths, but former UFC heavyweight and current podcast magnate Brendan Schaub isn’t one of them. Schaub opened up on the bout during an appearance on the final “MMA Hour” with Luke Thomas today (via BJPenn.com), offering his view that it could have gone either way but Malignaggi narrowly won the fight:
“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.’”
Lobov ‘s Win Not All Bad
Schaub noted that Lobov couldn’t get Malignaggi’s timing down, which caused him to hesitate. Overall, he enjoyed the broadcast, giving BKFC credit for their show’s pacing:
“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 a 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.”
The majority of the combat sporting world may not necessarily agree with Schaub. Yet it may have also been next to impossible to live up to the pre-fight hype and expectations as well.
Do you agree with Brendan Schaub’s assessment of Lobov vs. Malignaggi?
