Former UFC welterweight Karo Parisyan returns to action this Friday against Thomas “Wildman” Denny at WMMA’s “Fighting For A Better World” event in El Paso TX 3/31/12 live on PPV. WMMA is promising to donate a “large portion” of the revenue to the Wounded Warriors charity.
Parisyan began his fighting career at the tender age of 14 in an unsanctioned bare-knuckle bout in Mexico in 1996. He officially went pro in 1999 and rose to be the #1 contender in the UFC by 2005. Unfortunately for Karo, an injury to his hamstring gave Joe Riggs the shot at Matt Hughes and he never got another shot.
By 2009 injuries and a pain killer problem forced him out of the UFC. He performed horribly when they gave him a second chance at UFC 123 and since then has lost both of his bouts on the regional circuit.
Karo spoke to Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour and had a LOT to say. Here are a few highlights:
“(Retirement) crossed my mind, but I was like, what am I going to do? Seriously. What the hell am I going to do? I changed six jobs in one year, and beat up three of my bosses. So what the hell am I going to go do?
“I still have much more to prove, much more to give. It’s like, I got to the top. I was the number one contender. I did a lot of stuff in the sport, but nothing where I could say, yeah, I could retire today. … One my reasons — and you’re going to say this is a stupid reason, Karo, but to me it’s a big reason — but one of the reasons I want to come back is to shut people up. To shut a lot of fricking people up.
“For the record, I was never addicted to pain meds. I abused pain medications without knowing. When it hurt me, it was too late already. I had done too much damage to myself, mentally and physically.”
Part 2 of Karo’s first ever fight is after the jump.
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