Artem Lobov found his way into a co-main event against former top lightweight Michael Johnson at UFC Moncton, and it didn’t go well.
Artem Lobov was originally scheduled to fight Zubaira Tukhugov at UFC Moncton. A tall task for the 14-14-1 fighter to do, however after Zubaira was pulled from the matchup due to his role in the post-UFC 229 brawl between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor’s teams, former top-five lightweight Michael Johnson stepped in on under two weeks’ notice.
Johnson lost the first battle of the week on the scale as he missed weight by one pound. Johnson has only fought at featherweight twice prior to this attempt and weighed 175 pounds when he got the call to fight Lobov. Nonetheless, he accepted the fight and after narrowly missing weight, the fight continued.
The first round likely surprised many. Lobov came forward and landed a good combination of body kicks and kicks to the legs as he pressured Johnson and put him on the back foot. Johnson landed some shots as well including a couple of nice left hands, but it wasn’t the washout everyone expected in the first round.
The second round was also very close. Artem was moving forward the entire time, while he was missing many shots, he was the aggressor. Johnson landed a nice left hand that had Lobov off balance at one point, but Artem just waved his finger at him and kept trading. For two rounds, the Russian Hammer looked like he belonged.
However, in the third round, it seemed that Michael Johnson came alive, landing a lot of shots at will. Some very nice left hands landed in the third round, including a jab that dropped Artem to one knee. As it seemed Artem started to adjust, Johnson got the big takedown in the last minute to seal the round.
Michael Johnson def. Artem Lobov by Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
