Artem Lobov

If people are watching your fights and they care about what you do then that is success to me. As far as I'm concerned, I am one of the most successful fighters in the world.

This isn't a very manly thing to do, not showing up for a fight.

I honestly feel that Khabib is as big as he is in Russia because of Conor McGregor.

It would be very hard to say who would be the bigger draw in Russia between Khabib and Conor.

The thing everybody thinks of when they think about Russia is how tough the people are. When they see a fighter continuously pulling out, that's something that they really don't like. Then they look at a guy like Conor who always shows up and does what he says he's going to do. That really resonates with the Russian public.

I certainly will explore all avenues. K-1, boxing, all of them.

I know there's not a man in the world in any of the striking arts that would just run over me.

UFC, this is the premier organization. This is where the toughest matchups are and this is what I'm always after.

My record, for example, it represents a tough road. It represents a guy that was willing to fight when no one else would.

When you ask to go to some other country and fight their local best guy, and you know the judges are going to be his friend and the referee is going to be his coach, the head of commission guys is probably going to be his relative or something like that, and you're asked to do that for 100 Euros. Nobody wants to do that.

I bring in the hardest sparring partners you can imagine and I'm going through the guys.

This two fights a year thing, that's not for me.

Once you're inside that Octagon, it's one-on-one. Your skill versus his skill. Your heart versus his heart.

I always had an interest in MMA but I didn't start training until I was 21.

If no one is watching, it doesn't matter what else you are achieving, you are not successful.

What do you call success in our sport? What determines success? Are you successful if you are 10-0 and no one is watching your fights? Is that success?

Anywhere I was, I always seek the hardest challenge. I win some, I lose some but I always take the hardest challenge.

When I was in the UFC I challenged some of the biggest guys in the world. When I was fighting in Europe I did the same.

Fighting Paulie Malignaggi in bare-knuckle is not a challenge for me.

I was not released by the UFC.

Obviously UFC was one of those kind of dreams that we weren't sure if we were ever going to reach, so for us, the biggest belt was the Cage Contender belt.

More and more Russians started watching the UFC when Conor came along. The more they watched, the more they understood it.

If a fight happens between Conor and Khabib in Russia, the support would be divided between them. It would be 50-50.

A personality like Conor's appeals to the Russian people a lot. He's always ready to go, he knocks people out and he's tough.

In Russia, the people have been brought up tough. It used to be the Soviet Union. The thing everybody thinks of when they think about Russia is how tough the people are.

I honestly don't remember ever being hurt by anyone other than Conor. It probably has happened in training or a fight but I don't remember any. The only times I do remember getting hurt is by Conor. I remember most of them and it's happened many, many, many times.

I have my reasons to fight every single guy on the UFC roster.

I want to fight everyone. Weight makes no difference when it comes to who I want to fight.

Whether I like them or I don't like them, it makes no difference for me. Whoever is standing across the cage from me, that's who is going to go down.

I honestly really like Ryan Hall. There's nothing bad I could say about this guy.

I'm a true fighter. No one will ever make me quit.

It might seem that way, but getting hit with a bare knuckle is not as raw as getting hit with a bare knee, or getting kicked with a shin to your head, which I have been a few times. In that sense, it's nothing.

I always seek the biggest challenge and MMA is the biggest challenge.

I want to improve and to achieve many, many things in MMA, boxing and bare-knuckle boxing.

I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that money was a big factor in signing for Bare Knuckle - we're prize fighters, and our success is measured by the size of our purse.

Having your hands up doesn't stop you from getting knocked out and there are a lot of advantages to having your hands down. It's also more exciting because it looks very impressive from the fans' perspective, which is a big factor in the entertainment business.

If you truly believe that all the training you do can go out the window just because a guy is a few pounds heavier than you, that's just crazy.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, ballroom dancing wasn't the coolest thing to do. But that probably made me tougher, because it wasn't an easy task to do ballroom dancing and not get bullied. And I never got bullied in my life, even though I changed to five secondary schools in three different countries.

I absolutely love the fight game.

There's a reason why MMA is only three five-minute rounds, or five fives when it's a title fight. MMA is so much more demanding on the body - the wrestling, the changing levels, all that takes a lot out of you. Boxing is a breeze for us after MMA.

Get a boxer and get him wrestling for a minute or two - the arms get so heavy, filled with blood, they can't even hold them up any more, they can't box.

If you look at Mayweather's fights he often likes to get into the clinch, but what is a boxer in a clinch against a wrestler, an MMA fighter?

Boxers are absolute novices in the clinch.

Guys don't want to take hard fights, they avoid any challenges, they take the easiest fights and then they get rewarded with a UFC contract. That's not right, that should never happen that way.

I feel Alex White is exactly the type of guy I always talk about, with an undeserved, padded record. There's many, many of them in the UFC, because this is the easy way in.

It's called the Ultimate Fighting Championship and people pay to come and see the fights.

I'm always me, I always show up to get that knockout.

I've never been a big fan of jewellery or any of the shiny stuff, I just want to fight.

I love fighting. It gives me a cheque to pay for my food and for my accommodation and that's great but I just love to fight.

My attitude is that I just never give up. I've been choked out twice and had my arm broken in a fight but I've never tapped.