Karo Parisyan

Karo ‘The Heat’ Parisyan (born Karapet Parisyan) was born on August 28th, 1982 in Yerevan, Armenia. He began judo training very early with fellow Armenian Gokor Chivichyan, saying in an interview "I was a rough kid. I used to beat up on my sisters. My father said 'your sisters don’t have your strength. I’ll take you somewhere where you can take your anger out on other people.’ So that was pretty much how I got into martial arts.” His parents immigrated to the United States, California specifically, when Karo was six years old.

Karo’s passion was judo and he trained hard for more than a dozen years with coaches Gokor Chivichyan and Gene LeBell. The coaches taught Karo the Hayastan Grappling System, a blend of adapted elements from judo, catch wrestling, sambo, Greco-Roman wrestling and Muay Thai. With workout schedules and requirements more strict then most other fighters, Karo worked with everything from martial arts to weight lifting, building himself into one of the most powerful fighters in the world.
Parisyan made his UFC octagon debut at UFC 44 versus Dave Strasser on September 23, 2003 with Karo ended the fight with a Kimura lock late in the first round. UFC management made the decision to face Karo off against the very hot Georges ‘Rush’ St. Pierre. Parisyan fought a long, hard battle before eventually losing by decision. ‘The Heat’ rebounded and began to dominate the UFC welterweight division with wins over Shonie Carter, Nick Diaz, Chris Lytle, Matt Serra and Nick Thompson. He would then face Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 6 in August 2006, losing the fight by unanimous decision.

Karo again rebounded after the disappointing loss, defeating Drew Fickett in late 2006 and then beating Josh Burkman at UFC 71 in May of 2007.

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