Conor McGregor (photo via The Mac Life)

By FCF Staff

Conor McGregor’s recent claim that he offered to fight Frankie Edgar on short notice at UFC 222 caused quite the reaction, and Artem Lobov insists his teammate was serious about the offer.

McGregor relayed via social media last week that he approached the UFC about being a replacement for the injured Max Holloway, who was originally scheduled to fight Edgar this weekend. McGregor’s claim was met with mixed reactions, including an angry one from Edgar’s striking coach, Mark Henry.

Lobov was a guest on the latest “MMA Hour”, and when asked about McGregor’s statement, the featherweight said this (quote via MMA Fighting):

“(It was) very close (to happening)…very, very close,” Lobov said.  “It was real, 100 percent. Conor was ready to go, we were gathering the troops already, we were ready to go.”

“…To the best of my knowledge, UFC weren’t really all for it because it was really short notice and it wouldn’t give enough time to build the fight. From what I heard, that was the main reason for it,”

Edgar is now set to fight Brian Ortega at the March 3rd event, while Lobov is booked to face Alex Caceres at UFC 223, April 7th.