The Russian Hammer Artem Lobov Returns to the Octagon October 21st

It wasn’t too long ago that Artem “The Russian Hammer” Lobov fought Cub Swanson in a Fight of the Night. While the hammer couldn’t drive the nail to one of the top featherweights on the planet, he did put on a scrappy and entertaining fight. While a ton of fans and even media tried to say that Lobov did not deserve his spot in the UFC, he proved it with that performance. If you’re still not convinced, the UFC sure is. Lobov will make his return to the Octagon in October against Team Alpha Male’s Andre Fili at UFC Gdansk.

Now that’s a fun fight! @RusHammerMMA vs. @TouchyFili on deck for #UFCGdansk!

🎟 https://t.co/4pemQt78I6 pic.twitter.com/5lhO2My2rc

— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) August 18, 2017

Both fighters have had sort of a win one, lose one, win two, lose two pattern on their records. Fili may be a step down in competition from Swanson, but it may be closer to where Lobov belongs. Matter of fact, this is a surprisingly good match-up. Artem Lobov is a notoriously, shuffle forward slugger who showed a great improvement in his last fight, and Andre Fili is always fast and aggressive. Not to mention, Conor McGregor’s Team SBG has always has a running rivalry with Urijah Faber’s gym. The Irishmen enjoy a 2-0 lead against Team Alpha Male, 3-0 if you count McGregor’s verbal beating of Faber on TUF 22, let’s see if Fili can get his gym on the board.

The UFC Fight Night 118 card so far:

• Ramazan Emeev vs. Trevor Smith
• Jan Blachowicz vs. Devin Clark
• Oskar Piechota vs. Jonathan Wilson
• Andre Fili vs. Artem Lobov
• Dmitrii Smoliakov vs. Adam Wieczorek

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/18/2017.