– Paul Dollery reports from Las Vegas
ARTEM LOBOV HAS blasted Nate Diaz and his team for instigating an incident which he believes reflected poorly on the sport of mixed martial arts.
Ahead of his clash with Conor McGregor in tomorrow night’s main event at UFC 202, Diaz walked out of a press conference on Wednesday — but not before hurling a plastic bottle of water in the direction of McGregor’s team, which triggered a chaotic ending to the event at the David Copperfield Theatre in the MGM Grand.
Lobov — a training partner of McGregor’s at Straight Blast Gym in Dublin — will take on Chris Avila, Diaz’s team-mate, on this weekend’s card. The 30-year-old Russian-born featherweight was in attendance at the press conference and he wasn’t impressed.
“They did this fake thing, this fake walk-out,” Lobov explained to The42 at the UFC 202 media day at the Red Rock Casino.
That thing was as fake as Pamela Anderson’s tits.
“It looked like they planned that, but I’m not sure they planned the bottle-throwing. I think they got carried away and took it a little bit too far.
“It’s not something I enjoy. It’s not something I think should ever be done. This sport is a long time past this. It’s a mainstream sport now. It’s legal in New York. A lot of work has gone in to get it to where it is now and things like this don’t do it any justice.
“Let’s remain professional. We’re already fighting so there’s no need for any of this drama. Let’s just do it when it matters: on a Saturday night. This is when we get paid.”
