Boxing Promoters Trying To Book Lobov-Malignaggi 2

Photo by Alex Menendez/Getty Images

Combat sports became much more enjoyable when I stopped trying to make sense of all these cockamamie match ups and just accepted that anything with the slightest potential to make a buck was fair game.

Like Artem Lobov vs. Paulie Malignaggi, part deux.

“A boxing promoter reached out to me in December about possibly doing a boxing match with Artem Lobov, a regular boxing match,” Malignaggi told The Schmozone. “It all sounded really good, but saying it and doing it is usually different. I can tell you I’m going to the moon tomorrow, but it doesn’t mean I’m actually going to go to the moon. I told them ‘I’m not even going to bring this up to my team. I’m not going to bring this up to my team until I have some structure and an organized offer first.’”

Malignaggi was part of Conor McGregor’s boxing camp back when “Notorious” was training to fight Floyd Mayweather in late 2017. After a highly-publicized falling out, “Magic Man” took out his frustrations on Lobov, who was more than happy to drink from the fountain of attention.

“I have had some inquires about that as I had a boxing promoter reach out to me and ask if I’d be interested in a pro boxing match against Paulie,” Lobov recently told BJPenn.com. “With the coronavirus, all of that was put on hold but certainly I’d do it. Pro boxing has been something I’ve thought about for a long time. I think it would be a good first opponent for it.”

Lobov managed to score a unanimous decision victory over Malignaggi when they competed under bare-knuckle rules last June (highlights here). There was some mild controversy surrounding the “shit” scorecards, but not enough to warrant a rematch.

Or so we thought…