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Artem Lobov (left)
What's the Story?
Conor McGregor's SBG teammate, Artem Lobov is still scheduled to compete on the October 27 UFC Moncton card despite the fact that his original opponent Zubaira Tukhugov was removed from the fight due to his involvement in the post-UFC 229 brawl in Las Vegas.
In case you didn't know...
Khabib Nurmagomedov jumped the cage after submitting McGregor at UFC 229 main event and attacked his teammate Dillon Danis. This started a massive brawl in the arena, following which McGregor, who was recovering from Khabib's mauling got sucker punched by members of his gang which included PFL fighter Abubakar Nurmagomedov (Khabib's cousin) and Zubaira Tukhugov (UFC Featherweight who was scheduled to fight Artem later this month).
Dana White announced that all members of "Team Khabib" involved in the brawl will be suspended from the promotion and Artem will get a different fight at UFC Moncton instead of Khabib's teammate Zubaira. All three individuals from Khabib's team who were arrested for causing the brawl were released after the Irishman refused to press charges on them.
The heart of the matter
Conor McGregor's longtime friend and training partner Artem Lobov will be fighting at the UFC Moncton card. His new opponent hasn't been confirmed yet, however, ESPN has reported that UFC veteran Michael Johnson is very likely to face the SBG Ireland fighter in two weeks.
Lobov was originally scheduled to make a return in the month of April. But he was removed from the card after "Team McGregor" crashed the UFC 223 media day in Brooklyn and caused the melee at Barclays Center. Micheal Johnson is returning to action after his split decision win over Andre Fili in August, and Lobov’s first fight since a defeat to Fili last October
What's next?
The Undisputed UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has stated that he would leave UFC if his teammate Zubaira Tukhugov is stopped from fighting in the promotion for his involvement in the post-UFC 229 brawls. We'll only have to wait and see what happens.
