Artem Lobov is making his return to fight sports activities with a battle booked towards longtime rival Zubaira Tukhogov deliberate for a PFL occasion in October, though no official particulars have been revealed.
A number of individuals with data of the promotion’s plans confirmed the information to MMA Preventing with Lobov touting the matchup on social media following an preliminary publish from MMA Uncensored.
“7 years within the making,” Lobov wrote on Twitter. “Time to get revenge.”
The historical past between these two fighters dates again a number of years when Lobov was competing within the UFC and he ended up in a confrontation with members of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s staff, together with Tukhogov, in 2018 forward of UFC 223. Within the aftermath of that encounter, Lobov’s then teammate and pal Conor McGregor got here to New York and ended up launching an assault on a bus the place Nurmagomedov and different UFC fighters had been loaded as passengers following a press convention.
Lobov was amongst these concerned within the incident and he was really pulled from his battle scheduled that weekend.
The UFC finally booked Lobov towards Tukhogov however the bout by no means occurred after Tukhogov was concerned in a post-fight melee at UFC 229 the place Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in the primary occasion earlier than leaping over the cage to go after members of McGregor’s staff.
The matchup was by no means rescheduled with Lobov and Tukhogov each finally leaving the UFC roster however now they’ll lastly try and settle their variations within the PFL cage.
Lobov is competing for the primary time since 2021 when he retired from competitors following a number of bare-knuckle fights. He’s additionally not aligned with McGregor after submitting a lawsuit towards his former pal over proceeds from the sale of Correct No. 12 whiskey, which he claims he helped launch.
As for Tukhogov, the Russian can also be making his return to motion for the primary time in over two years along with his final battle coming again in 2023 when he misplaced a choice to Elves Brener within the UFC.
The battle between Lobov and Tukhogov is predicted to happen at a catchweight of 165 kilos with the cardboard at the moment focused for Dubai.