It was hardly the ideal preparation to face a fighter like Lobov, who had been extremely active during Malignaggi's spell on the sidelines.
In the final round, Malignaggi back to evade Lobov's jabs.
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Artem Lobov, a former UFC fighter, and Paulie Malignaggi, hyped up their Bare Knuckle FC 6 fight with a number of fiery press conferences and threats of severe bodily harm, which led to Saturday night's event to being highly anticipated by lots of different fight fans.
After the show, he apologized to the sport of boxing for the loss, but complained that he did not receive fair treatment from the ringside judges.
"First of all, I still look pretty?" The boxing media has, for the most part, held up finger crucifixes at the bare-knuckle concept, not wanting any part of it.
Malignaggi told Business Insider earlier in the week that there were plenty of transferrable skills he could bring to bareknuckle, citing movement and counter punching.
Then, later on before Lobov's fight against Jason Knight at BKFC 5, both Malignaggi and Lobov got into it during Lobov's media workout at Mendez Boxing gym in NY where, in the end, Malignaggi slapped Lobov. I was very comfortable boxing. "I felt a pain that I'm pretty familiar with", Malignaggi said.
He then turned on the ringside judges, saying he did not get a fair shake. "But nonetheless, I thought I outboxed him pretty well". In my opinion I was handily winning ...
Despite Malignaggi's defensive efforts, strikes and tricks, Lobov walk away with the win.
The pre-fight build-up showed a stark contrast between the two fighters, with Lobov arriving in a t-shirt and jeans, while Malignaggi arrived in a succession of extravagant outfits and expensive watches as he attempted to belittle the Russian with his wealth.
"It was an emotional fight". "I came on the backfoot, more than usual".
"I take my hat off to him". "I still pressed, it was a nice decision win for me".
Once the fight moved into its later stages, however, Lobov reverted to what he does best - pressuring the boxer and by all accounts, making it an uglier fight than it had been.
