Artem Lobov and Paulie Malignaggi were involved in a brief scuffle during the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 5 media day.
BKFC President David Feldman didn’t expect the scuffle to happen, but says he couldn’t expect anything better than what happened.
“As a promoter, you want that kind of stuff to sell a fight. I didn’t want it here today,” Feldman told MMA Junkie. “I wanted it after Saturday, but it happened. … I just wanted to introduce Artem and his fight coming up and get everyone hyped about this fight. Artem bare knuckle is big news, then us signing Paulie Malignaggi, that’s bigger news, and I wanted to maybe preview what maybe could happen in June. But I never thought that was going to happen. I’m very surprised that they went face to face like that. I didn’t want to take anything away from Artem and Jason Knight. I just wanted to bring Paulie into the loop. He’s going to sit. He’s going to commentate the fights on Saturday night, so I wanted to get his face a little more recognized with Bare Knuckle and wow, as a promotion, you can’t ask for anything better than that.”
Lobov faces Jason Knight at BKFC 5 and a win could propel him to a fight against Malignaggi.
Feldman also believes the majority of the pressure is going to be on Lobov on Saturday Night.
“I think he’s got a lot of pressure on him just in general from coming over from the UFC,” Feldman said. “A lot of people are making the mistake he was cut from the UFC. He wasn’t. He requested a release to fight for Bare Knuckle. Because of that, he wanted this to be his new sport, so he needs to shine Saturday night.”
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 5 takes place on Saturday, April 6 from the Mississippi Coast Coliseum & Convention Center in Biloxi, Mississippi with Artem Lobov and Jason Knight headlining.
