Artem Lobov fires back at Mark Henry’s Coach Kavanagh quip

Artem Lobov isn’t one to back down from a fight.

Although he has Andre Fili firmly in his crosshairs ahead of their upcoming bout at UFC Gdansk on Oct. 21, Lobov recently claimed that he would entertain a fight with blue-chip Dagestan prospect Zabit Magomedsharipov in an interview with the Talking Brawls podcast.

The Russian called for date with Lobov following his scintillating UFC debut where he scored a second round submission win over Mike Santiago, increasing his current win streak to nine.

Mark Henry has been singing Magomedsharipov’s praises ever since he began working with him in New Jersey.

The veteran coach shared a tweet from SevereMMA.com that carried Lobov’s affirmative response to his countryman’s callout, and praised the SBG man for agreeing to the fight.

He also highlighted his hope that John Kavanagh would show up to corner Lobov after the SBG head coach was absent from his corner for his UFC main event debut versus Cub Swanson back in April.

Responding to Henry’s comment, Lobov assured the striking coach that he and his “day one” coach would be preparing an “ass-whooping” for him and his “mail order fighters”.

Henry took exception to comments Kavanagh made when Frankie Edgar was trying to align himself with a featherweight title shot against Conor McGregor. Although that fight never came to fruition, the hard feelings carried over into the pre-fight build up to UFC 205 when McGregor faced another one of Henry’s fighter’s, Eddie Alvarez.

Later, responding to Lobov’s reply, Henry wished “The Russian Hammer” well ahead of his upcoming fight with Fili.

He also stated that he hoped Lobov would come away with a win against Fili and complimented his fighting style.

Later Ali Abdelaziz, Edgar and Magomedsharipov’s manager, got involved. Again, he praised Lobov’s willingness to take fights, suggesting “businessman” McGregor did not do the same. When Lobov defended McGregor, Henry claimed that the Irishman ducked Edgar during his featherweight reign, despite him being “a beast”.