UFC veteran Artem Lobov revealed that MMA superstar Conor McGregor congratulated him for the weekend victory over former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi.
Lobov and Malignaggi clashed in a bare knuckle fight in Florida, as the main event bout for the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships 6 pay-per-view.
The two fighters engaged in a very heated verbal war for several weeks - and their rivalry stems from Malignaggi's 2017 fallout with Mcgregor.
Lobov and McGregor are close friends and teammates.
Malignagggi was used by McGregor as a sparring partner to prepare for scheduled fight with Floyd Mayweather in August 2017.
But their relationship quickly became hostile after McGregor released footage of their sparring sessions - claiming to have beaten Malignaggi down and dropped him.
And that grudge easily carried over to Malignaggi's fight with Lobov.
Malignaggi felt that he won the five round fight, but the judges felt otherwise - with all three scoring the contest 48-47 in favor of Lobov.
McGregor was very happy to see his friend come out on top.
“I spoke to Conor, he said that was a good performance. I dominated the fight. I pressed the action all the time and he said it was a very good performance and a great win for me,” Lobov stated to The MMA Hour.
“To me, a fight is a fight, I just want to win it no matter what, but this one of course was a lot more personal. This was an emotional build-up and a win was a must here. So it was a very important win. It was definitely not my favorite performance, definitely not my best performance or most exciting fighting but it was a must win. I couldn’t have lost here. No way and I didn’t and I brought the win home and that’s the only thing that matters now.”