Judge orders Artem Lobov to pay legal fees after denied injunction against Conor McGregor
Former professional fighter Artem Lobov was ordered to pay court costs after a judge previously denied an injunction to prohibit UFC star Conor McGregor from posting about him on social media.
Once former friends and teammates, Lobov and McGregor have had a heated feud in recent months.
Lobov is currently involved in a separate lawsuit with McGregor over profits from McGregor’s famed Proper No. 12 whiskey.
The former two-division UFC champion McGregor sold a majority stake in for $600 million in 2021. Lobov reportedly claims that for his efforts in creating Proper Twelve, he has an agreement that entitles him to five percent of the money McGregor made from the sale.
Lobov “alleges he was instrumental in developing the brand that became Proper No. Twelve but ended up squeezed out as the spirit took off.”
Lobov contends that McGregor was initially going to launch a Vodka company, but that he was able to help change his mind.
“I was the person who came up with the idea to do a whiskey for Conor,” Lobov said.
“I said to him before you even look any further (about Vodka), ‘here’s what I know about Irish whiskey.’ I told him about my presentation from college. I told him about the dominance of Irish whiskey and all of that. He said, ‘you go off and see what deal you can put together’ and I went on my way.
“I went on and met all different whiskey distilleries. I called some and met some in person. I did my research and put a beautiful deal together. Once the deal was ready, I went to Conor and I said, ‘Conor, I have the deal ready for you. This is going to be a billion-dollar deal, no messing here.’ I’m not sure if he took me seriously or not at the time with the billion dollars.
“Conor offered me $1M but I turned it down, I didn’t accept it. You know, throughout my career whenever I have helped Conor with camps, he offered to pay me for them camps, but I never accepted money from him.”
Lobov then filed a second lawsuit aimed at McGregor for defamation after he claimed McGregor subjected him to harassment and intimidation through several posts on Twitter. On Twitter, McGregor called Lobov a “rat” and later described him as an “uncooked sausage of a thing” and also challenged him to a fight.
Justice Garrett Simons called Lobov’s attempt to silence McGregor on social media as “draconian” and stated that it had the potential to stifle “freedom of expression.”
As a result, Lobov was ordered to pay the court costs according to reports. The other lawsuits will continue to move forward.
