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MMA: PARISYAN LOOKING TO BRING "THE HEAT"
Miguel Lopez, Staff writer
Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA
Aug. 16, 2006
A win over Sanchez may mean a title shot.
Karo "The Heat" Parisyan finally got the break he wanted ever since
joining the Ultimate Fighting Championships in 2003, and after two
years of efforting, he was set to bring the heat to Matt Hughes for
the welterweight crown in Novermber of 2005.
Parisyan's hard-working style helped build a 4-1 record, as he defeated
the likes of Matt Sera, Nick Diaz, Chris Lytle, David Strasser.
His only blemish came from Canadian powerhouse GeorgesSt. Pierre.
St. Pierre received the title shot against Hughes at UFC 50,
but failed.
Parisyan's turn to battle Hughes came at UFC 56, but during training
for the match Parisyan injured his knee and sustained a tear in
his hamstring.
"I take one fight at a time, I don't look past my opponent but I
do want my title shot," Parisyan said. "I think about how I missed
my first chance at the 170 title. Matt Hughes got lucky that I was
injured because I was ready, but it wasn't in God's plan ... it wasn't
meant to be."
Parisyan (15-3) returned to the Octagon once he was at fully recovered
from the injury and jumped back on the road to the welterweight
title. On Thursday night in UFC's Ultimate Fight Night in Las Vegas,
which will be televised live on Spike TV, he will take a major step
in his path back to a title shot when he faces unbeaten Diego Sanchez
(17-0) in the main event.
"Diego matches up with me pretty well," Parisyan said . "He pushes
the tempo and in my last few fights my opponents haven't, so it will
be interesting. I don't know what to exactly expect from him, but I
do have my gameplan ready."
At UFC 59, Parisyan submitted Nick Thompson in the first round via
strikes in his first fight back from the leg injury, but the Hollywood
resident knows that Sanchez is a more well-rounded fighter that can
grapple well and can go hard for the full three rounds.
"I always train the same for each fight," said the six time Junior
National Judo champion. "I rarely change my workouts but I did work on
my conditioning more this time than in my last fights and on wrestling
too. I trained a little with Randy Couture, brought in Tito Ortiz
too. I think that the better training partners you have, the bigger
partners you have the better you will be prepared for fight night."
Parisyan was born in Armenia but his family immigrated to the U.S.
when he was at a young age. He feels he is fighting in the toughest
weight class not only in the UFC but also in any MMA organization.
"Today, the welterweight division is the toughest weight class in any
organization. In 185 pounds, Rich Franklin is there and I don't think
anybody is getting past him. In 205, I don't think anybody will beat
Chuck Liddell, "Babalu" (Renato Sobral) has a chance and will be a
tough opponent, but Chuck is the man. In the heavyweight division,
there is nobody who can beat Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski except
each other. But in 170, we have Hughes, St. Pierre, Diego, BJ Penn,
that can beat each other on any given day, and that's not the case
with the other weights."
Parisyan feels that there is no MMA organization that can compete
with the UFC's welterweight.
"I haven't paid much attention to PRIDE's attempt to get its fighters
into UFC not because I don't care, but because I don't see PRIDE having
a solid welterweight fighter that can compete with UFC fighters. If
they do want to put it's welterweights versus ours then we can show
them how good we are. But I am looking forward to the Chuck and
Wanderlei (Silva) fight.
"UFC fighters are the best, it has more talent and the fighters are
more vicious and people talk about PRIDE being the best, there are good
fighters, but other than its heavyweight division, which is stacked,
there is no other solid weight class."
Miguel Lopez, Staff writer
Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA
Aug. 16, 2006
A win over Sanchez may mean a title shot.
Karo "The Heat" Parisyan finally got the break he wanted ever since
joining the Ultimate Fighting Championships in 2003, and after two
years of efforting, he was set to bring the heat to Matt Hughes for
the welterweight crown in Novermber of 2005.
Parisyan's hard-working style helped build a 4-1 record, as he defeated
the likes of Matt Sera, Nick Diaz, Chris Lytle, David Strasser.
His only blemish came from Canadian powerhouse GeorgesSt. Pierre.
St. Pierre received the title shot against Hughes at UFC 50,
but failed.
Parisyan's turn to battle Hughes came at UFC 56, but during training
for the match Parisyan injured his knee and sustained a tear in
his hamstring.
"I take one fight at a time, I don't look past my opponent but I
do want my title shot," Parisyan said. "I think about how I missed
my first chance at the 170 title. Matt Hughes got lucky that I was
injured because I was ready, but it wasn't in God's plan ... it wasn't
meant to be."
Parisyan (15-3) returned to the Octagon once he was at fully recovered
from the injury and jumped back on the road to the welterweight
title. On Thursday night in UFC's Ultimate Fight Night in Las Vegas,
which will be televised live on Spike TV, he will take a major step
in his path back to a title shot when he faces unbeaten Diego Sanchez
(17-0) in the main event.
"Diego matches up with me pretty well," Parisyan said . "He pushes
the tempo and in my last few fights my opponents haven't, so it will
be interesting. I don't know what to exactly expect from him, but I
do have my gameplan ready."
At UFC 59, Parisyan submitted Nick Thompson in the first round via
strikes in his first fight back from the leg injury, but the Hollywood
resident knows that Sanchez is a more well-rounded fighter that can
grapple well and can go hard for the full three rounds.
"I always train the same for each fight," said the six time Junior
National Judo champion. "I rarely change my workouts but I did work on
my conditioning more this time than in my last fights and on wrestling
too. I trained a little with Randy Couture, brought in Tito Ortiz
too. I think that the better training partners you have, the bigger
partners you have the better you will be prepared for fight night."
Parisyan was born in Armenia but his family immigrated to the U.S.
when he was at a young age. He feels he is fighting in the toughest
weight class not only in the UFC but also in any MMA organization.
"Today, the welterweight division is the toughest weight class in any
organization. In 185 pounds, Rich Franklin is there and I don't think
anybody is getting past him. In 205, I don't think anybody will beat
Chuck Liddell, "Babalu" (Renato Sobral) has a chance and will be a
tough opponent, but Chuck is the man. In the heavyweight division,
there is nobody who can beat Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski except
each other. But in 170, we have Hughes, St. Pierre, Diego, BJ Penn,
that can beat each other on any given day, and that's not the case
with the other weights."
Parisyan feels that there is no MMA organization that can compete
with the UFC's welterweight.
"I haven't paid much attention to PRIDE's attempt to get its fighters
into UFC not because I don't care, but because I don't see PRIDE having
a solid welterweight fighter that can compete with UFC fighters. If
they do want to put it's welterweights versus ours then we can show
them how good we are. But I am looking forward to the Chuck and
Wanderlei (Silva) fight.
"UFC fighters are the best, it has more talent and the fighters are
more vicious and people talk about PRIDE being the best, there are good
fighters, but other than its heavyweight division, which is stacked,
there is no other solid weight class."