Conor McGregor’s Teammate Believes He Can Easily Out-Grapple Khabib
Conor McGregor’s Teammate, Artem Lobov, is an important part of the narrative that the UFC is attempting to tell in the story of the hype for the UFC 229 headliner.
Story Time
That story started back in April during fight week of the UFC 223 event. It’s well known that McGregor and several members of his entourage decided to fly from Ireland to Brooklyn, New York to get revenge on current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The interesting part of this story is the fact that it all started once the UFC lightweight champion got into an argument with McGregor’s training partner, Lobov, earlier that week. This led to McGregor attacking the fighter bus that had Nurmagomedov on and he was arrested as a result.
He was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief. Lobov was supposed to fight Alex Caceres at this event but the UFC pulled Lobov from the fight. The reason is due to his actions with the former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion in the bus attack.
Conor McGregor’s Teammate Believes
Lobov recent went on record by stating that he believes McGregor can “easily” win the grappling exchanges in this title fight.
“When you say it like that, it’s as if Conor doesn’t have wrestling and grappling. Khabib doesn’t have any striking,” Lobov told The Mac Life (H/T to Bloody Elbow). “It is true that Khabib doesn’t really have any striking, but it’s certainly not true that Conor’s grappling or wrestling is not on that level.
“He can easily out-grapple Khabib, and in the wrestling as well. Of course this is Khabib’s game, so we’re not stupid. We’re not gonna fall into his hands right away, but make no mistake about it, we’re gonna be ready everywhere.”
“I see Conor stopping him in Round 1. I just don’t see Khabib being able to do anything,” he said. “Look at some of his other fights he’s been in. The Iaquinta fight, when he was connecting, Khabib did not like it at all. He was going back, leaning back, turning away, closing his eyes.”
The UFC 229 pay-per-view event is slated to take place on Saturday, October 6, 2018, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
