nt"

While Artem Lobov’s victory over Paulie Malignaggi got more attention than any other fight in the history of Bare Knuckle FC, his win over Jason Knight is the one regard as the promotion’s best fight.

Lobov and Knight threw down for five brutal rounds at BKFC 6 on April 7 in Biloxi, Miss., before Lobov earned a unanimous nod.

Now the duo are getting set to go at it again, as they’ll headline BKFC 9 on Nov. 16, back in Biloxi in an event which will be aired on pay-per-view

Tuesday, the duo were part of a press conference in which they talked about how things went the first time around, and what might happen the second time around.

Click on the video linked above in order to see the highlights from Knight and the man his fans call “The GOAT.”

Former Bellator heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov’s Saturday night fight has been canceled.

Minakov (22-1 MMA, 6-1 BMMA) was scheduled to square off against veteran slugger Javy Ayala on the main card of Bellator 232, but the Russian competitor could not secure a visa in time for the show.

Russian news agency TASS initially reported the fight fallout. MMA Junkie confirmed the news with Bellator officials, who also told MMA Junkie that company has pulled Ayala (11-7 MMA, 6-4 BMMA) from the show and will not seek a last-minute replacement.

Bellator 232 takes place Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie. The card is headlined by a rematch between Bellator welterweight champion Rory MacDonald and former champ Douglas Lima in the finals of the welterweight grand prix tournament.

Nobody has seen the “BMF” title belt, but Conor McGregor has?

Sure.

Speaking at a sponsor’s event Tuesday in Kyiv, Ukraine, McGregor said not only has he seen the belt that will be awarded to the winner of Jorge Masvidal vs. Nate Diaz at UFC 244, there’s more to it.

“I designed that ‘Bad Motherf***er’ belt,” McGregor said. “I actually designed that. I signed off on the design of how they are creating that belt.”

That was McGregor speaking in literal terms before he continued more figuratively.

“So most certainly that belt was brought into fruition, brought to life because of me: the real bad motherf***er,” he added. “So most certainly one of those men is on my radar.”

OK, here are some thoughts on that:

• 1. McGregor did not design that belt; let’s just get that out of the way. UFC president Dana White just said last week that McGregor is no longer “the man.” You think they let him design a “BMF” belt the UFC trademarked?
• 2. Yeah, perhaps there was a time when McGregor could lay claim to being the baddest motherf***er in the game – and even then he tapped out to Diaz. Is that what BMFs do? Win a fight. Or better yet, just fight.
• 3. Speaking of which, we’d be happy if either Masvidal or a Diaz trilogy actually is on McGregor’s radar. It’s hard to know if McGregor will ever fight again – he’s very rich, plus it probably would help to not be the subject of sexual assault investigations. But if McGregor does decide to fight again, trying to prove he’s still a BMF against one of those gangsters would be the most intriguing thing McGregor could come back to.

The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.