Artem Lobov released from the UFC

UFC featherweight and The Ultimate Fighter season 22 alum Artem Lobov’s time in the UFC has come to an end. ‘The Russian Hammer’ went 2-5 inside the Octagon.

TheMacLife’s Oscar Willis revealed the news on Tuesday that the Straight Blast Gym (SBG) staple had asked for his release from the promotion and he got it.

“I can confirm Artem Lobov has requested and been granted his release by the UFC. He wanted to fight in March, but the UFC wanted him to wait until April.” Willis’ tweet read.

Lobov, of course, is best known for being one of Conor McGregor’s best friends as well as main training partners.

Holding a 13-15-1 professional record, Lobov entered the UFC through the aforementioned 22nd season of TUF as he was a part of Team McGregor.

Lobov would lose his elimination bout but be brought back where he would then go on to win his way to the finals. Clashing with the BJJ wizard Ryan Hall in said finals, Lobov would suffer a unanimous decision loss.

Closing out his UFC stint, Artem Lobov would lose three straight to the likes of Cub Swanson, Andre Fili, and Michael Johnson.

At UFC 223, the Russian-Irishman was supposed to take on Alex ‘Bruce LeeRoy’ Caceres. That was until his involvement in the bus attack that was coordinated by McGregor and the rest of their crew.

Lobov now gets to take his pick for what’s next.

The 32-year old has said in the past that he wants to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov’s teammate Zubaira Tukhugov and he doesn’t care where it happens.

The two were scheduled to fight at UFC Moncton in October 2018 but Tukhugov wound up being pulled from it due to his involvement in the UFC 229 post-fight brawl.

The chances of that fight happening don’t appear too likely for anytime soon as Tukhugov will be staying under the UFC umbrella.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/29/2019