Artem Lobov opens up on assault of fellow Russian MMA fighter

Last month, a horrifying attack on Russian MMA fighter Rasul Mirzaev flew under the radar after a night out with UFC fighters Ali Bagautinov and Artem Lobov quickly turned into a horrific night for Mirzaev.

According to reports, Lobov returned to Russia last month, where he spent time with both Bagautinov and Mirzaev after Bagautinov had spent time with Lobov in Ireland back in November. The trio went out for a night at the club when several men brought up Lobov’s teammate, Conor McGregor, and his unwillingness to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov. While Mirzaev and several of the men were involved in a brief altercation, security broke up the incident and the men carried on with their night.

Unfortunately however, Mirzaev was attacked inches home in the days following the altercation. In addition to being shot multiple times, Mirzaev’s apartment was robbed of jewelry and cash.

Now, Lobov has spoken to BloodyElbow to get his side of the story:

“On 16th of December Rasul [Mirzaev] and Ali [Bagautinov] took me and Peter to a night club in Moscow. There I was approached by a few Dagestani males, they were quite friendly towards me and just wanted to say that they respect the fact that I support Conor as we came up together, despite the fact that Khabib is Russian. While we were talking, one of Rasul’s friends and one of the Dagestani males started to get verbally aggressive with each other (not really sure what the reason was), however nothing really happened there as myself and Rasul very quickly stopped the incident from escalating and we all got on with our night. As far as I was concerned nothing else happened and I didn’t even pay much attention to this incident as it was very minor and that is why I gave you my initial statement.

However I was later informed that at some point later that night Rasul was going to the bathroom and one of those Dagestani males punched him in the back of the head, Rasul started defending himself but everything was broken up by security. When I asked why no one said anything to me about this, I was told that the guys wanted me to enjoy our night and didnt say anything as anyway it wasnt that serious. This is what led to the attack on Rasul at the end of the year.”

Fortunately, Mirzaev underwent successful surgery to remove the bullets, and is on his way to a full recovery.