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UFC-Gdansk's Artem Lobov had an awesomely cringe-worthy breakdown of Andre Fili

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GDANSK, Poland – Love him or hate him, Artem Lobov is never going to give a dull interview.

On Saturday Lobov (13-13-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC) meets fellow featherweight Andre Fili (16-5 MMA, 4-4 UFC) at UFC Fight Night 118, which streams entirely on UFC Fight Pass from Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland.

Lobov, whose fight is part of the preliminary card, is a 31-year-old Russian who fights out of Ireland, where he’s training partners with UFC lightweight champion and MMA superstar Conor McGregor. That affiliation – at least in the eyes of many fight fans – hasn’t always been a point in Lobov’s favor.

Take for instance “The Ultimate Fighter 22,” where Lobov arguably got some preferential treatment from head coach McGregor. Lobov suffered an elimination-round loss on the reality show, but he was McGregor’s choice – perhaps unsurprisingly – to get a second shot to reenter the tournament. In fairness, though, Lobov made the most of it and made it all the way to the tourney final, where he ultimately suffered a decision loss to Ryan Hall.

It was there, on “TUF 22,” where Lobov first encountered Fili, who was serving as an assistant coach for McGregor’s rival head coach, Urijah Faber. During an often-heated season, Lobov and Fili had a few encounters.

“He was the first sort of UFC guy I got a chance to interact with,” Lobov today told MMAjunkie. “He was in my weight class, so by all means, he had a target on his back from me.

“(The fight) didn’t happen as soon as I wanted it to happen. I wanted that fight immediately after ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ but it’s here now.”

Fili joined the UFC in 2013 as a young top prospect, but the 27-year-old has had an uneven octagon run. “Touchy” has rotated wins and losses over his past eight bouts and now needs a win over Lobov to prevent the first two-fight skid of his career.

“I want to show him what’s up,” said Lobov, who’s coming off a “Fight of the Night” loss to Cub Swanson in April’s UFC Fight Night 108 headliner. “He was there obviously as a coach, and I was just there as a fighter. But I’ll be doing the coaching on Saturday night.”

Lobov, as he’s known to do, then got a little cringey with his trash-talk – this time using Fili’s “Touchy” nickname to make his point.

“He certainly has an exciting style,” Lobov said. “He seems to be more of a standup guy even though he comes from Team Alpha Male. And like a lot of the tall guys, he seems to come forward a little more, which will make for a great fight.

“But make no mistake about it: On Saturday night, I will ‘Touchy’ and he will ‘Fili.'”

For more on UFC Fight Night 118, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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