A look at the cold, hard numbers that appear in Artem Lobov’s pro MMA record might not paint the most encouraging picture.

But when it comes to this sport, there’s a lot that numbers alone won’t tell you. And as he reflects on a career that involved almost 30 MMA bouts – in cages spread over eight different countries – Lobov said there’s certainly a worthy story being told.

“My record, for example, it represents a tough road,” Lobov told MMAjunkie Radio. “It represents a guy that was willing to fight when no one else would. When you ask to go to some other country and fight their local best guy, and you know the judges are going to be his friend and the referee is going to be his coach, the head of commission guys is probably going to be his relative or something like that, and you’re asked to do that for 100 Euros.

“Nobody wants to do that. There was only one guy that was willing to answer the call every time, and that was me, so my record represents that – a true fighter, a real fighter.”

Lobov (13-14-1 MMA, 2-4 UFC) gets a chance to even out his record when he returns at UFC 223 on April 7. He meets Alex Caceres (13-11 MMA, 8-9 UFC) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. And while Lobov hasn’t followed Caceres’ career enough to tell what his somewhat similar record stands for, he does see some common ground.

“He seems like a guy that wouldn’t really turn down a fight, as well,” Lobov said.

The opposing featherweights enter the preliminary-card bout, which streams on UFC Fight Pass, with a similarly rocky octagon status: Both have lost two out of their last three octagon appointments. Lobov, however, is the one on a skid and has suffered back-to-back decision losses to Cub Swanson and Andre Fili.

The skid halted a two-fight winning streak – which, in turn, followed yet another pair of losses. But in this scenario too, Lobov is not letting the numbers dictate how he feels about his own fights. Rather, he chooses to focus on building off what he already sees as improvement.

“I was quite happy, to be honest, with even my last two performances, even though I lost fights,” Lobov said. “There were certain errors that I have to fix, but it’s important to keep things at work because, for example, when a guy gets a loss, they often want to change everything, but that’s not the case. A lot of the things still work.

“You just might need to make some smaller adjustments. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I just fine-tuned my performances to get the perfect performance, and I feel that it will come.”

Lobov did get some praise for his efforts. In the UFC Fight Night 108 headliner against Swanson, for instance, “The Russian Hammer” entered as a huge underdog and with his headlining spot questioned, only to take the perennial contender the distance and earn some respect from the MMA community – as well as an added $50,000 fight-night bonus.

At the time, Lobov lamented the loss but ultimately took solace in the fact he’d managed to make the crowd happy in the process.

“This is the whole point – entertain the fans,” Lobov said after the fight. “This is an entertainment business. If they were entertained, then the night was a success.”

The less-thrilling display against Fili, which was somewhat overshadowed by the (loud) presence of UFC lightweight champ and friend Conor McGregor, wasn’t as talked about. But Lobov, who succumbed to Fili’s takedown game after being dropped by a head kick in the first round, also chooses to look on the brighter side.

“Even the Fili fight, I was quite happy with the way the fight was going,” Lobov said. “He tried to take me down. I was defending his takedown. I was pressing him, and I didn’t feel any threats. Maybe I got a little too relaxed, and I ended up eating that head kick.

“I recovered, but I still wasn’t really fully there, and I ended up losing the fight.”

As Lobov said, rather than completely revolutionizing his game due to setbacks, it’s about making minor adjustments. And while taking on a notoriously creative risk-taking striker in Caceres will certainly involve some of those, Lobov isn’t about to compromise who he is.

“What I changed with this one – maybe I’m going to come in a little bit tighter, especially with Alex being so unorthodox and kind of wild, and he likes those kicks, as well,” Lobov said. “So I might be a little bit tighter than usual. Maybe my hands will be a little bit higher, but other than that, I’m happy enough with my style.

“It’s a style that I built for the public. It’s a style that has earned me a lot of fans. It’s a style that has kept me in the UFC, so why would I change that?”

For more on UFC 223, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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