Conor McGregor has started talking about a potential retirement fight next year, but his former friend and training partner Artem Lobov believes that ‘The Notorious’ already quit the sport many years ago.
“I’m going to actually try to sell the fight for my next one. My final fight,” McGregor had stated on social media a few days ago. “See what numbers I can generate. Keep outdoing my own records.”
However, Lobov thinks that there’s another reason that McGregor is eager to get one final big payday before hanging up his gloves.
“Last fight happened many years ago, now it’s about supporting the habit,” Lobov wrote on X. “In my humble opinion, of course.”
Lobov was close to McGregor at the height of his success in the UFC, but their friendship later turned sour, culminating in ‘The Russian Hammer’ reaching an undisclosed settlement with McGregor earlier this year over claims he was due a share of the profits from the Irish superstar’s ‘Proper 12’ Irish Whiskey brand for helping come up with the idea.
There’s plenty more to the story as to why Lobov is no longer on good terms with McGregor though, and in a follow-up post he reeled off a list of allegations that suggest the two-division champion had repeatedly burnt bridges with the people closest to him.
“He took care of nobody, he f*cked over his coach and all his best friends Lee, Derek, Gerry Vegas, Charlie myself and others,” Lobov wrote. “Shook hands on different deals that they brought in, money came in but he didn’t pay what was promised. And he got ‘Proper F*cked’ on his whiskey deal that I negotiated and his manager Audie stole from him and me. I showed him unmatched loyalty, I dont say that lightly as a 40-year-old man.
“He got 100M for Mayweather what did John get??? 100K if even, meant to be 5 percent but he never paid that for any of his fights. He fired his best mate Derek, father of three kids, weeks before Christmas over something Derek said that Conor didn’t like. Paid Lee, the founder and director of [The Mac Life] 500 euros per week before tax for years, agreed to pay Gerry 10K at the start and 10K at the end of the camp, then wouldn’t pay the second 10K. Thats just a few examples.
“We all used to meet up and wonder why he does that to us and the conclusion we came to is that his drink and drug abuse brings out the worst in him and the sober Conor would never mistreat his brothers like that. Conor was my brother, I loved him like one. All the truth and facts will come out. Drink, drugs, and no accountability is what brought all the troubles into his life. All of this allegedly, of course.”
Lobov also went on to allege that McGregor once sent some people to harass him and his family.
“I was at SBG every tuesday and thursday all these years, didnt see him anywhere,” Lobov told a fan who questioned why he hadn’t confronted him face-to-face as their gym. “He went on X, sent people to burn my car and threaten my 60 year old mother with a hammer, but never had the balls to call my number directly…I am the godfather of always showing up, thought Conor how to be a real fighter. But he calls me out at 4am haha thats junkie o’clock, I was a sleep with me kids. Allegedly of course.”
