Luis Pena Announces Move To Featherweight, Calls Out Artem Lobov Unsuccessfully

@RusHammerMMA you wanna fight before the end of the year let’s do it https://t.co/WfeCyS6B3P

— Luis Antonio Pena (@violentbobross) November 14, 2018

Luis Pena has decided to change things up after suffering his first professional loss over the weekend.

The man affectionately known as “Violent Bob Ross” lost via split decision to Mike Trizano, the winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 27 reality television show and Pena’s former housemate, last Saturday night at UFC Fight Night 139.

Pena, who was a popular figure during his time on “TUF,” suffered a leg injury which prematurely cut short his time competing on the show. The 25-year-old was confident had he not suffered his injury he would have been crowned the overall tournament winner instead of Trizano. The matchup against Trizano was a chance to back up his comments, but he fell short on the night.

After the loss, Pena posted on Twitter that he would be moving down from 155 pounds to the featherweight division and called out Conor McGregor’s friend and training partner Artem Lobov for his first bout, asking if “The Russian Hammer” would be down for a fight before the end of the year.

In a Tweeted reply, Lobov declined, stating that he planned to stay home with his family this Christmas.

My family is staying home this Xmas, sorry Marv, no fight for you :) pic.twitter.com/ztYAwvXcIu

— Artem Lobov (@RusHammerMMA) November 15, 2018

Pena has recently started training at the American Kickboxing Academy and, according to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, has volunteered to step in for his AKA team mate Zubaira Tukhugov who was originally scheduled to face Lobov at UFC Fight Night 138. However, Tukhugov was subsequently pulled from the bout for his involvement in the post-fight melee between Lobov’s teammate McGregor and another of Pena’s teammates in Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.