Ahead of Saturday’s Bare Knuckle FC 6 event in Florida, go inside the main event with “The Magic Man.”
The card is headlined by a much-anticipated grudge match between Paulie Malignaggi and Artem Lobov. The event takes place Saturday at the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Fla., and airs on pay-per-view.
Ahead of the card, Malignaggi spoke to the BKFC about his training camp and how he thinks the fight with Lobov will play out.
How has training camp has been going?
My training camp has been really good. We started in New York, went to California for a few weeks, then back to New York, and now Miami. It’s been a traveling training camp and that’s what’s made it fun. It can become tedious being in the same spot and doing the same things over and over again. We’ve tried different things, while also sticking with our basics. I’m up to par both mentally and physically.
Did you do anything special to prepare for Lobov and your bare-knuckle debut that you may not have done during training for your boxing matches?
To prepare for Artem, I hit the punching bag a lot more because Artem is basically a punching bag with legs. I wanted to get used to that and get my fists accustomed to it. We’ve also done some other things to be prepared specifically for my bare-knuckle debut.
What will this last week entail heading into fight night?
We’re just making our final preparations now and doing the final overview of our game plan. We’re already sharp and we’re maintaining it. We’ll make a full-on decision soon about the approach we’ll take into the fight.
How do you expect your fight against Lobov to play out stylistically?
This is going to be a painful night for Artem. This is a world-class fighter against a punching bag with feet. He’s going to be very stubborn, but he’s going to get hit nonetheless. I think you’re going to see that I’m a different class of fighter. I’ve been a champion and I’ve been in the ring with many champions. He doesn’t have that experience. You’ll see what difference that makes on fight night.
What would a victory at BKFC 6 mean for your professional fighting career?
This would be another feather in my hat to get this win. I’m taking part in a new kind of combat and it would show that I can be successful and victorious in anything I put my mind to.
What’s your prediction for how this fight ends?
This fight ends with Lobov’s face falling off. I’m going to cut him up. I hope he lasts, because I want to beat him down round after round.
