Russian Artem Lobov caused an upset this morning as he beat Paulie Malignaggi at Bare Knuckle Fighting 6.

The MMA fighter beat the American boxer following the conclusion of five two-minute rounds on a unanimous decision.

The contest, which took place at the junior middleweight level, was a close-fought one, with all three judges scoring it 48-47.

The fight started out mainly even, with Malignaggi looking to be slightly in the ascendency after the third round.

But Lobov fought back in the final four minutes, taking the bout to his opponent in an attempt to clinch the victory. He swung an awful lot, and began to catch 'The Magic Man' with some well-timed punches.

Malignaggi was not happy about the outcome, and made his feelings known after the fight.

The 38-year-old said: “Listen, I mean the first round is always like a feel out round. But honestly, I’m not even kidding… I got hit with one clean punch all night.

“In that one clinch I got hit with a couple of little good shots. In that one clinch, I think it was two little short shots he hit me with, in one of the clinches and that was it. I mean otherwise it was like little grazing shots that hit my stomach or grazed my face. I thought I pretty much out-boxed him the whole way.

“Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t meant to be. I thought I was easily winning the fight. I don’t know what to say about the decision. In my opinion I thought I was handily winning.”

The match-up between the two was met with much anticipation in the build-up, with them sharing a lot of bad blood.

The feud originates from Malignaggi's relationship with Lobov's teammate Conor McGregor.

The New York City-native was the Irishman's sparring partner as the latter prepared for his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2017. McGregor released photos and clips of the two's training, appearing to show he had dropped Malignaggi. However, the former WBA World Champion responded by saying that the images were doctored to look like 'Notorious' had the upper hand.

As such, the dislike was also transferred to Lobov, with Malignaggi even saying before the fight that, “if I don’t hurt him to a degree that there’s something permanent there, it’s not a win for me.”