Artem Lobov

To me, KSW is a huge promotion and it's on my list of one of the things I want to do as an MMA fighter. I think that goes for any European fighter.

Honestly, I'm destroying people in sparring, but for some reason I haven't been able to show my full potential in the UFC.

When I first fought in K-1, I knocked out a guy in two minutes.

It's not just boxing I'm considering, it's K-1 too. That's something I've always liked.

Whenever someone has an unorthodox approach, different to what a standard boxer would look like, they write it off as being bad. They never seem to look at the normal approach to boxing and think that it might be slightly outdated.

Conor knows how to fight and he knows how to box. He has been boxing professional boxers for his whole life, he has had almost 50 amateur boxing fights.

Boxing is stuck in the past.

For me, when someone is able to beat me, that's the guy that I want to spar with.

When you fight someone, it's different. It's a lot of conflict that you can have. Once you fought somebody, that's it. There's not much to it anymore. You went in there, you settled it like men, one on one, and that's it. After that, I don't think there's really a point to kind of carry it with you, any of that negativity.

There is such a thing as building a fight, that's no problem, we're going into fight each other. That takes certain levels of intensity that you have to have. You're going in there to hurt the guy and he's going to do the same to you so that's understandable.

I said this before, for me I will always respect the fighter that shows up.

I want to be able to take fights across multiple sports and one of the main reasons is I really want the Tukhugov fight. I want to be able to accept that should that call come.

I want to be able to take fights on short notice.

I feel I have the necessary skills to compete with the best, I wouldn't have even aimed for the UFC if I didn't think I did.

Artur Sowinksi is a fight that I want to put right for a long time - that win was stolen from me. His friend was the promoter, a Polish promoter at the time and he overturned it, but that's a win in my mind - it was a win that was stolen from me.

I just couldn't turn down the money Bare Knuckle FC were throwing at me, so I ended up signing with them.

Being able to train nothing but boxing for a full year made me a much better boxer as I brought in professional boxers helped me make a lot of gains.

I never pull out of the fights.

I always show up. I always make weight.

I always make sure that I'm good to do business with.

When you don't have to worry about the financial side, you can truly concentrate on the craft. You can truly concentrate on the fights you really want to have. You have that freedom and it's extremely important especially when you have a family and you have to provide.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for UFC.

I'm able to do it a lot better outside the UFC than when I was in the UFC.

Let's be honest here - 99 percent of MMA fans haven't got a clue what's going on. They don't understand the game enough to comment on any of that. They don't know how easy it is to have an impressive record. I could have 10 guys in my gym tomorrow, beat them all up, and there's 10 wins for my record. It is that easy. It is that easy to be 10-0.

I always seek the highest challenge, the biggest challenge.

I can take a punch.

I truly love fighting, so how can there be pressure for me when I absolutely love it?

With the kind of power that I have - no one hits as hard as I do in the featherweight division.

In times of war, my brothers never let me down.

I've taken fights when others wouldn't.

Your record is where you've been, but it's not necessarily where you are or where you're going. That just shows that I've had a tough road.

I'm a learner and I'm a go-getter.

I think there is a big difference between real people and Internet people. Real life people understand that this is a sport.

At the end of the day, we all need competitors otherwise there are no fights.

The Irish and Russian communities are huge in New York, so this is truly one of the only places where I can fight in front of all of my fans.

Whether it's in the UFC or elsewhere, you need to be winning in this sport.

At the end of the day, fans make the show. If there's no one watching, then there's no one paying, then we don't earn any money, then what's the point?

This is the fight game, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Look, I always say this, 99 percent of people in the UFC would be gone if they have made $100 million.

Born in Russia, forged in Ireland, they don't make them like this anymore.

I was absolutely honored to be invited to the Kremlin. It has been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid.

They should bring up my record, and call it the fighter bible. The warrior bible. All those guys with padded records should read it everyday, and they should put my picture on their wall as the Jesus Christ of MMA.

I pride myself on having the most exciting fights ever.

Any of the shows I've ever fought on, they always want to have me back because I always have the fight of the night performance.

I've said it before, me and Conor are very, very good friends, and he's certaintly helped me get into the UFC, you know, it is what it is, it makes no difference.

For me it's my biggest sporting achievement being Conor McGregor's sparring partner.

What Aldo is good at is the leg kicks, that's what oppened a lot of doors for him. He would land those leg kicks, and then the shot would come from there, but in terms of his hands, he doesn't have, I mean he has power, of course he does, but nowhere near the power that I have, I promise you that.

I think against Cub I get it done. He comes in, he's very open, he throws wild shots, and he has never, I promise you, in his life felt power that I have.

At the end of the day, you have to get finishes. If you want to be successful in this industry that's what you need.

Many MMA fighters have tried boxing before, even just sparring for a few rounds, but no boxer has done MMA rounds. There's just no way for them to do that.