Artem Lobov's most ambitious call-out to date may have paid off in a big way.
Cody Garbrandt was given a title shot immediately after beating Takeya Mizugaki. Conor McGregor secured his first one by putting away Dennis Siver.
So it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Artem Lobov could get a crack at the featherweight strap if he beats top ranked featherweight Cub Swanson.
When the fourth-ranked 145 lber was
first called out by the SBG fighter, he laughed out the ambitious shout. He didn't envisage a fight against an unranked fighter as a possibility considering he just emerged victorious from arguably the greatest fight in 2016 (or UFC history, for that matter) against Doo Ho Choi at UFC 206.
At the time, Swanson had his sights set on either champion Jose Aldo or the interim king Max Holloway, but he has apparently given up hope on those bouts and turned his attention back to the Russian Hammer.
https://twitter.com/CubSwanson/status/827269150498099202
Lobov played it cool with his response, doing his best to get a rise out of the man who has been known to get a bit emotional on social media - at least when McGregor is involved.
He expertly let Swanson instigate a smack talk battle, knowing that this would snowball into a thing, and hopefully a fight.
https://twitter.com/RusHammerMMA/status/827269367402426368
After this two-word response from the SBG fighter, you could pretty much predict beat-for-beat how the rest of the exchange would go down.
Swanson accusing Lobov of riding his training partner's coat-tails?
Check!
https://twitter.com/CubSwanson/status/827271287143747585
Lobov re-establishing his fighter's mentality and his love of combat by agreeing to any type of brawl under any circumstance?
Check!
https://twitter.com/RusHammerMMA/status/827271986665574401
Then the money-tweet, the post that may yet seal the biggest fight of Lobov's career. All Lobov needed here was Swanson to agree to a fight.
Luckily, he did.
https://twitter.com/CubSwanson/status/827273207371571201
Don't know about everyone else, but we think that UFC London main card looks pretty bare.
Any plans for March 18?
Catch up with this week's episode of 888sport Football Friday Live
