Paulie Malignaggi: ‘Bush League’ BKFC Judges Awarded Artem Lobov for Drawing Blood

The Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship 6 headliner between Artem Lobov and Paulie Malignaggi on Saturday night was not the slugfest many expected it to based on the pre-fight buildup.

When the fight went to the judge’s scorecards, Malignaggi, a former boxing world champion, was confident he did enough to win the fight. Yet, that was not the case as “The Russian Hammer” won the fight by unanimous decision. Not surprisingly, Malignaggi disagreed.

“I think I landed more jabs and check hooks in the second half of the fight than the first part of the fight,” Malignaggi said at the post-fight press conferences (video courtesy of MMAjunkie.com. “Ironically, the judges gave me the first two rounds, then after three, they didn’t give me a round. Again, bush league s—t because I got cut in Round 3, so once the bush league s—t came in, they only scored my blood.”

Malignaggi adds that if he didn’t break his hand the fight would have been much different. Even with the injury, he believes he was out-boxing “The Russian Hammer.”

“He was getting out-boxed very easily, but now I was cut, and clearly the bush league judges scored the blood and not the actual fight,” Malignaggi said. “As the fight was winding down, I was like, ‘This ain’t so bad.’ I was controlling the action, I was controlling the tempo. I was so calm.”

A frustrated Malignaggi added that Saturday’s bout will be his last bare knuckle appearance.