UFC Fight Night 118 results: Andre Fili tops Artem Lobov, but all eyes on Conor McGregor

At times it seemed like Andre Fili was battling two men: his actual opponent Artem Lobov, and Fili’s friend and training partner Conor McGregor.

Fortunately for Fili (17-5 MMA, 5-4 UFC), he was up to the task, battering Lobov (13-14-1 MMA, 2-4 UFC) on the feet and halting his momentum with timely takedowns en route to a unanimous-decision victory.

The featherweight bout was part of the preliminary card of today’s UFC Fight Night 118 event at Ergo Arena in Gdansk, Poland. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Fili seemed to frustrate Lobov early in this fight with his range and movement, stinging Lobov from the outside and circling constantly just out of his reach.

Lobov would manage to fire back with a few isolated counters, but he couldn’t mount much sustained offense, as Fili opened a cut over his eye midway through the round and then dropped him with a head kick late.

As Fili’s foot speed began to slow, Lobov began having more success with his counter strikes, but Fili managed to shut him down with a takedown seemingly whenever he needed it. As Lobov was stuck on his back late in the second, that’s when McGregor got more involved from cageside, jumping out of his seat and getting so close to the action that referee Marc Goddard paused the fight to issue a warning to the UFC lightweight champ.

Lobov tried gamely to battle back in the final round, but even when he seemed to have Fili hurt, he couldn’t stop the takedowns that Fili relied on to turn the tables. By the end, it was a clear win for Fili, who swept Lobov on the scorecards, winning the fight with scores of 30-27 from all three judges.

The victory gets Fili back in the win column after a unanimous decision loss to Calvin Kattar in July. Lobov has now lost two straight.

Up-to-the-minute UFC Fight Night 118 results include:

• Andre Fili def. Artem Lobov via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Warlley Alves def. Salim Touahri via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
• Aspen Ladd def. Lina Lansberg via TKO (punches) – Round 2, 2:33
• Josh Emmett def. Felipe Arantes via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-25)

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 118, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

(MMAjunkie’s John Morgan and Abbey Subhan contributed to this report on site in Poland.)