One to Watch: Artem Lobov vs. Chris Avila

The UFC is returning in some style following a week's break.

UFC 202 sees Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor finally square off in their rematch at the newly-minted T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, just weeks after the promotion's first bow in this venue at UFC 200 a month ago.

The main event is a blockbuster and is supplemented throughout the fight card to create a well-rounded night of fights. Light heavyweight powerhouse Anthony Johnson is taking on Brazilian brawler Glover Teixeira in the co-main event, the gritty Rick Story faces off against the mercurial Donald Cerrone, crisp boxer Cody Garbrandt is slated to fight scrappy Japanese bantamweight Takeya Mizugaki, while Neil Magny vs. Lorenz Larkin serves as the UFC Fight Pass prelims headliner.

In short, it's a damn good card.

But, for this week's One to Watch, I have plumped for storyline over big names. Artem Lobov vs. Chris Avila is a match-up which has many interesting facets to its credit.

Featured on the Fox Sports preliminary fights, Lobov and Avila are the perfect precursor to Saturday night's main event. Lobov is both the best friend and main training partner for McGregor at the Dublin-based Straight Blast Gym, while Avila is a similar figure in the fighting life of Diaz—training alongside the Diaz brothers at Cesar Gracie's gym up in northern California.

The subject of training partners has been a common theme between both McGregor and Diaz in the pre-fight preamble ahead of UFC 196 back in March—Diaz continually brought up the alleged lack in quality of SBG training partners. In an interview with BJPenn.com, Nate's brother Nick said: "I'm just saying he's (Nate) had fucking matches with top blacks belts all over. This guy is one of best fucking black belts in the world (points at someone off camera). And you got the best fucking Irish guys over there; they just wanted to start to do this. Everybody jumping on board because one Irish dude is going somewhere amongst all the Irish.

"But this isn't fucking Ireland—this is the best grapplers in the world you have here, sparring and working with the best boxers in the world here. But there ain't no money behind any sort of advertisement going out to promote our situation and there never has been. There's a lot of money going out into advertising McGregor, otherwise he wouldn't a big superstar right now. And I'm talking before the Aldo fight".

As a riposte, McGregor actually pinpointed Avila as a "skinny boy" when trying to fire back on the teammates front shortly after a mini face-off brawl. Diaz himself suggested a fight between Avila and Lobov to prove who had the better training partners and here we are. This fight is the perfect way to settle the score between SBG and Cesar Gracie's and serves as a delectable starter for the night's main dish.

Lobov earned his UFC call up after his stint on The Ultimate Fighter. Having lost the preliminary fight to get into the TUF house, Lobov was called up as a wildcard and knocked out various opponents on his way to the final of the show under the tutelage of McGregor.

Unfortunately for Lobov, the Russian-born, Irish-bred, scrapper lost a drab unanimous decision to Ryan Hall in the TUF finale, before losing another to Alex White months later. Speaking to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour, it appeared Lobov wasn't certain of his UFC future. "I wasn't sure if I was going to get another shot. I was prepared to go elsewhere to fight. I actually had a fight lined up for a Russian promotion against one of the best unsigned featherweights in the world at the moment. I contacted the UFC and said, 'Okay guys, I understand, I know you're probably going to release me because I've had two losses'. I just wanted to confirm so that I could go and take another fight instead."

Lobov has everything to fight for on Saturday night, though he doesn't appear too hung up on having to only fight in the UFC. He's a man who genuinely enjoys battle. Meanwhile, Avila will be making his UFC debut and will certainly have something to prove thanks to the backing received from his Cesar Gracie stablemates.

With a modest record of 5-2, Avila has already fought on one of the bigger MMA stages outside of the UFC – losing a unanimous decision to Jason Powell under the World Series of Fighting banner. However, from those five wins, four of them are finishes with three coming by knockout and one by submission.

Diaz has talked highly of Avila since the arguments between the Cesar Gracie and SBG camps. Lobov isn't convinced. "It looks to me like he's trying to be a Diaz," Lobov told Helwani. "He's trying to copy their style, which is understandable because they're part of the same team. But that's a dangerous style to copy.

"As much as people say that Nate and Nick have unbelievable boxing, I certainly don't think that's the case. If you look at their fights, they always come out mangled. They get hit by a lot of shots. Their style relies so much on just being really, really tough and being able to absorb a lot of punishment. That's not a good style to have, especially if you're facing someone like me. I'll give him as much punishment as he wants but if that's what he's going to try and do, I don't think he's going to last too long."

Lobov went to talk about Avila and his teammates having "dad bods" despite having supreme cardio—a backhanded compliment if I've ever heard of one But, petty insults aside, he eloquently summarised why this bout is so interesting on many levels.

"This [fight] is a perfect opportunity to respond, and it's the way I want to respond. They are the ones who suggested Chris Avila so they obviously feel confident in his skill. They've seen me fight before so they feel he has the tools to beat me. I certainly don't think so and obviously those comments make it an even bigger point for me to prove.

"This is team versus team. It's not just a fight, it's a war, so I'll definitely do everything I can to get that first win and then we'll continue it with Conor's win later on."