THE LIGHTNING ROD: CONTROVERSIAL UFC CASTOFF KARO PARISYAN EXPLAINS RECENT TROUBLES
MMAjunkie.com
Dec 20 2009
Karo Parisyan got out of a cab at the Las Vegas airport, and his
father’s voice on the other end of his cell phone was finally too
much to bear.
It hadn’t been long since Parisyan told his manager to inform the UFC
brass that he was pulling out of his scheduled UFC 106 bout with Dustin
Hazelett last month. A series of suffocating personal issues, Parisyan
said, led to the decision, the most difficult he said he has ever made.
He had hundreds of texts and phone messages pleading with him to
answer the question: Why?
Why would this veteran MMA fighter tell UFC management on the Thursday
before a fight that he wouldn’t do it, especially when he knew it
would likely lead to his lifetime suspension from the organization?
Was it the painkillers? The stress? The panic attacks?
His father was asking the same questions. Parisyan found the nearest
wall and slumped down.
"I said, ‘Dad the fight’s not going to happen,’" Parisyan said
this weekend during a 40-minute, emotional phone interview with
MMAjunkie.com. "He asked what happened. I said I didn’t know. I was
getting teary/ I started going crazy."
Parisyan is talking faster and faster as he explains.
"I said, ‘I let everybody down,’" he said. "He said, ‘What happened?
You were fine.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it, this is the
most depressing moment of my life, my contract’s ripped up, and my
career’s over.’
"I said to him, ‘I hope my plane crashes on the way home.’"
That, of all the low points, was the lowest. This Armenian-American
who had compiled an 18-5 record (8-3 UFC) since his first unlikely
Mexico debut as a 14-year-old had watched the sport he once loved
become a financial obligation to take care of his family. He needed
money. They needed money. Fighting was the only way to get it, and
he deathly feared what would happen if he lost.
So there, at the airport, before he flew home to his California home
where he, his mother, his father, his grandmother and his daughter
live, Parisyan found himself wishing for an end.
Now, he hopes to find a new beginning. He doesn’t fault UFC president
Dana White for banning him, and he knows the only way he can prove
to fans that he still is a strong fighter is to get a fight.
That’s what he wants, to get back into fighting after some time off,
because he still loves the sport. He appreciates the support he has
received through his website, karo-parisyan.com. Now he wants to show
the world he’s still the badass, confident fighter who got a quick
start to his career and became one of the world’s most well-known
competitors.
"Even as I was talking to my dad, I’m thinking in the back of my mind,
‘This is not me,’" Parisyan said. "I already knew I could climb that
mountain again.
"I have problems, but I’m sorting them out. It’s like in the movies
that are the rise and the fall. Well I don’t want this to be the rise
and fall of Karo. I want it to be the rise and fall and rise again."
Sport to business
Parisyan was born in Armenia, and he and his family moved to Russia
and then California about 20 years ago. They have lived there since.
When he was 14, he heard about an MMA show in Mexico, and he begged
his father to take him. During the weigh-in, organizers asked Parisyan
who he was fighting. When he responded, they were taken aback. It was
a Mexican national hero who was considered nearly unbeatable. They
went as far as to ask his father to sign a waiver declaring them not
responsible if Parisyan died in the cage.
"They said, ‘Tomorrow in the dressing room, you won’t miss the guy.’"
Parisyan said. "I walk in and I see all this paparazzi, and … Do
you remember the movie ‘Kickboxer’ with Jean-Claude Van Damme, where
his brother is going to fight the guy, and he’s kicking the post with
his leg, knocking the paint off of it? That’s what this guy was doing.
"We went five rounds bare-knuckle. I pounded the [expletive] out of
him. I’ve fought men all my life, and I’ve beaten men."
After his first professional fight in 1999, Parisyan got off to a
15-3 start and gained some notoriety. But, it was all still just fun.
Nothing to make a living, but to have a good time. Win some fights
and enjoy himself.
On Aug. 17, 2006, Parisyan fought Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 6
in a bout he points to as the start of his personnel issues. Despite
the decision loss, he earned his first significantly large paycheck,
and that’s where, he realizes now, the trouble began for him.
"Then I fought (Drew) Fickett, and it was (UFC) Fight of the Night
again," Parisyan said. "So I buy a house for my family, but when I’m
buying the house, I’m in the process of signing the documents and
I’m training for a fight with Ryo Chonan. I was half as in shape as
I was with (Josh) Burkman. I had to change the way I fought."
His mentality was different. He became more defensive in the cage,
not showing his usual aggressiveness because he didn’t want to give
an opponent a chance to attack. He wasn’t fighting to entertain;
he was fighting to win. He had to win. If he didn’t, he feared for
his family’s future.
It was a crushing weight. During the early part of our conversation,
I asked Parisyan if his family all still lived with him, and he
partially cut me off when he knew the question.
"You have to know me and all the stress I’m going through, all the
crap I have going on with my family," he said. "I love my family,
but there’s so much pressure to take care of them. Sometimes your
fun becomes your work, and now you have to do a job just to support
your family.
"You’re fighting under this big [expletive] rock, and you’re trying
to get out, and you just can’t breathe."
Rumors and confusion
Perhaps because of his confident personality, Parisyan had already
been a highly talked-about figure in MMA. The controversy surrounding
him began when a scheduled fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC
88 was a late scratch, and he later admitted that he had issues with
panic attacks.
His persona grew significantly when he tested positive for prescription
painkillers, an offense that cost him a win against Dong Hyun Kim at
UFC 94 in January 2009.
The Hazelett bout was supposed to be his return. In the week leading
up to the fight, though, he started feeling immensely strong anxiety.
"Everything was just horrible," Parisyan said. "I couldn’t breathe. I
couldn’t [expletive]. I couldn’t do anything. I was in a bad financial
situation, and the commission said I’ve got to get my license. I’ve
got to pay the commission. They’re going take it out of my check."
A Nevada State Athletic Commission official said during the week of
the event that Parisyan was cleared for the bout and that a payment
plan for his $32,000 fine because of the drug suspension was approved.
Whatever the situation, Parisyan felt overcome.
On Thursday, it became too much. He called his manager, and he told
him to contact the UFC. Soon after, his phone was attacked by messages
from friends, fans and reporters wanting to know why this was happening
again. Was it stress? Painkillers? A back issue?
He was quickly into a cab and on his way to the airport, where he
would both briefly wish it would all end and, in the back of his mind,
convince himself that he would return.
White later said Parisyan gave him a "laundry list" of reasons why
he was pulling out.
"I’ve tried to help him several times," White told MMAjunkie.com
Radio prior to UFC 106. "When I say ‘tried to help him,’ I went above
and beyond the call of duty on that one, man. I won’t go public with
[the details], but I’ve done a lot for that kid, and that kid stuck
it to me.
"He stuck it to me hard."
Hoping to return
Parisyan underlines there are no hard feelings with White.
"I said, ‘Bro, I’m going walk out, and I know you’re going close
all the doors behind me, and I would do the same,’" he said. "I just
asked to keep a window open just a little bit for me."
Parisyan reiterates that the issue was stress based on taking care
of his family and dealing with financial troubles, not painkillers,
that caused him to pull out of the fight. He has taken them, he said,
but so has everyone else.
"I never abused pain pills," he said. "Every [expletive] fighter
takes pills. It’s just what happens."
So now, as he deals with taking care of his family, Parisyan hopes
to make an MMA return. The sport has been a pride point for him since
that first bout as a teenager in Mexico.
He admits he knows he hurt the fans and the UFC. He doesn’t expect
another chance there. But, he wants to fight.
In the past month, Parisyan has become perhaps the biggest talking
point in MMA as fans have wondered what exactly happened, why it
happened, and what this brash, successful fighter has to say about it.
Now Parisyan is talking, trying to explain what he was feeling and
how he’s hoping to change.
"Everything added it up, and it happened all at once," he said.
"Whatever was going on, I’m trying to take care of all this stuff,
of every single problem."
Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. Each Sunday he profiles some of the most
fascinating people in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story?