ThaFormula.com - Why did your family choose to take you to Gokor and Gene's gym for training as a kid?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Well my cousin was over my house one day and started saying "I can kick your butt, I been doing karate and Judo" or whatever. So I asked him "what do you train?" and he told me "I train Judo" and his dad picked me up and took me there. So it was random. It was never in my mind like "okay let me see what gym I should go to to start training." It was just random. So he just took me there and I just started training.

thaFormula.com - So when you started the system, what did you think of it?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Well, I started with straight Judo and Karate and I liked Judo. In My first Judo tournament I took a bronze medal. I was happy and I just started really liking Judo.

thaFormula.com - Who did you mainly train with or was it both with Gene and Gokor?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - It was Gokor in the beginning and then Gene.

thaFormula.com - So when did the decision to fight MMA come for you? Was it something that you wanted to do or was it something that they decided to put you in?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - We had always grappled and stuff. We were very versed in arm bars and leg locks and chokes and I used to do a lot of Gi chokes in Judo. So I was 14 years old entering a Mixed Martial Arts show in Mexico and a bunch of us went down there. I was 14 years old and I fought a guy who was a Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu expert. The guy was 23 and he was the best fighter in Mexico. He was like 10-0 or something and I fought him for 5 rounds and I annihilated him and I was only 14. After that I was like "dude if I'm 14 years old and I'm doing this, I think I should just keep doing what I'm doing."

thaFormula.com - When you look back at that Karo, are you glad that you started MMA at the age of 14 or do you think you should have waited until you were a little older?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Well if I had this mentality back then, obviously I would have picked the fighters because I remember weighing in for the fight back then and the guys that were doing the weigh-ins were saying "you shouldn't fight this guy, he will kill you." They were saying "he's the best fighter in Mexico." He was very muscular and very stocky. He was a strong guy like "my god I'm gonna be fighting this guy?" But basically I'm glad I started that young because experience wise, I've been fighting guys today in the UFC that were champions or they were UFC world champions, they had no clue what MMA was at the time I was fighting because I've been fighting MMA for 10 or 11 years. Since I was 14 years old I've been fighting Mixed Martial Arts. I've been a part of Martial Arts since I was like 8 or 9 years old, I've been doing this for like 15 years. So I was happy I started at 14 just based on experience and since 14 I have fought men all my life. I never fought anybody my age.

thaFormula.com - And when this was happening were you watching the UFC at all back then?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Yeah, I remember the first UFC. Gokor brought a projector to our school and he pulled it up in the room and we saw it. We liked it, but it was such a long time ago that I can't really remember much. I remember I liked it obviously, but I didn't think anything of it. Fighting in the UFC, and no disrespect because I love the UFC, it's like home, but fighting in the UFC was never like my dream. Like guys they say, "oh I live and breathe UFC, it's my dream to fight the UFC." No, I would watch it and say "I would like to fight in it one day, I like it it's cool." But not like "oh my god it's my dream." It just came to me. I started beating so many good guys and finally got an offer and I took it.

thaFormula.com - Now I wanted to ask you about your fight with Guido Jennings that you had early in your career. He was a Gracie Jiu Jitsu fighter and at that time they were the most talked about fighters, were you worried at the time about facing him?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - He was A Gracie Purple belt. A 32 year old guy and he came in with a Gi and I was like "Oh My God." I didn't know who he was and didn't know anything about him. I just saw that he was wearing a Purple Belt and a Gi. I didn't know he was a Gracie guy. I was just really happy that he was wearing a Gi. So I start off just throwing him around like a baby. 'Cause the last thing you should do when going in to fight a Judo guy, is go in and fight the guy with a Gi on when in the cage or ring.

thaFormula.com - That's why Royce decided to fight Yoshida with no Gi the second time around right?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Yeah definitely, because he would have got mauled. Judo guys are known for grips and throws.

thaFormula.com - So when you beat him so easily were you surprised at the time how easily you had beaten a Gracie Jiu Jitsu Purple belt?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Nah bro, I had been fighting guys twice as big as him. I remember one guy I fought in Cage Combat. He was a 27 year old guy and I was 16. I threw him, boom, boom took him down, arm barred him and it was over. I went upstairs to go hang out with a couple of girls. They call me upstairs and they tell me "hey his coach wants to fight you." His coach was 40 years old, 242 pounds. He was huge, unbelievably big, a very strong man and all he wanted to do was knock me out cold. I remember I slammed him against the cage, I broke the cage, threw him down. I went for a leg lock, he started kicking me and then I escaped and put him in the same arm bar as I caught his student with. So there was nothing at that time that could surprise me. I knew that I could beat anybody if I was in shape and stuff and I usually was.

thaFormula.com - Now is your style of fighting something that you got from Gokor and Gene or is this just your style of fighting?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - I remember one good thing that Gokor said that was honest, he said "Karo has his own different style. That's one style I can't teach." Because Gokor is more of a steady grappler and a steady Judo guy. He's not really like active and really agile. Where thank God I'm kind of a little different at throwing people. Yeah Gokor taught me the throws without the Gi and stuff but no one could really do it. Thank god I was one of the very, very, very few guys that were fortunate enough to incorporate no Gi Judo in Mixed Martial Arts and that's what I did.

thaFormula.com - Now after you fought Guido you had racked up a pretty big winning streak and you were undefeated and up next for you came your first match against Sean Sherk…

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - I got robbed bro, I don't give a fuck what anybody says. I could send you the tape. It was in the Midwest, some hometown shit. A small very low quality show and let's put it this way, I fight Sean Sherk the full five rounds, it went to overtime and it was an 8 man tournament. We were supposed to fight twice in the same day and then the 3rd fight would be on another day. So I fought Sean Sherk and I sent Sean Sherk to the hospital. He had a concussion and he didn't even pick up his check. Also, he did not compete the same day. They said "he's out, he's too fucked up." They offered me the fight and they offered the fight to Chris Brennan and Chris Brennan said "no I don't want to fight Karo." So everybody just dropped the whole fucking show. But I fought Sherk and I sent Sherk to the hospital. I threw him, I cut him, and I did everything I wanted to. He was just trying to hold me down. I mean it's a fact bro, no one can deny it, and I have the tape and the footage. So they fucking robbed me. Sherk was 10-0 at the time and I was 11-0. They robbed me big time.

thaFormula.com - So what brought on the rematch with Sean Sherk?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Well I said I want a rematch because I got robbed and they said "okay no problem." So they give me a rematch. I remember New Years night, I got a virus in me. It's a virus where you have a fever for like a month. You're very weak. Everything I ate I threw up. I think Diego had the same exact virus when he was supposed to fight John Alessio and he was out for like 2 months. I think I had the same virus, it's like a stomach virus, but if you eat you throw up and at the same time I started cutting weight. I cut from 180 to 168 pounds bro in like a week and a half because I was not eating at all. I had gotten paid for the fight already so I said "you know what I'm just gonna go fight fuck this I'm not gonna back down." So I think it went to the third round and again I cut him up and still threw him and everything. But in the third round I said "stop the fight" because I can't do anything I was so weak. My knees were so weak I couldn't knee him. I saw him shooting but I just couldn't keep my knees up to knee him. So I said "stop, it's worthless I can't fight, I can't do anything, I have no strength in me," and I still fought him for 3 rounds with a 104 fever.

thaFormula.com - So were you winning the fight up to that point?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - It was very even. First round he shot right off the bat. He puts me down, I reversed, and I got on top of him. I hit him, we stood up, I threw him and when we would stand up I would blast him with punches and kicks. We would go to the ground and stand back up, so it was going back and forth. 2nd round I went back to my corner and I said "just stop the fight because I can't do anything."

thaFormula.com - How does it affect you mentally when you receive your first loss and did it affect you pretty bad seeing as how you had a pretty long undefeated streak going?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - I was just very, very disappointed. Unbelievably disappointed. They messed up my record pretty badly and I was pretty mad at the show and the judges because it was a very low quality show. I remember it was a small like banquet hall in a hotel in Louisiana and right above the cage there was the lights and you could see nothing but smoke. It was all cigarette smoke in this small little arena bro. So I was like "fuck you assholes" because this is gonna be on my fucking record.

thaFormula.com - So after those 2 losses you came back to fight Darrell Smith right?

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - Yeah. I remember I saw Darrell Smith throw someone out of the ring actually. He was a very, very ferocious wrestler and then they offered me Darrell Smith and I said "fine I'll fight him." I remember I literally played with him. I threw him with a very beautiful Judo throw and as I threw him I popped back up standing with a Kimura, I rolled into a knee bar, to the triangle, to the arm bar and I caught him. After that I took 2 years off and just did more Judo.

thaFormula.com - So then you came back 2 years later and racked up wins against Antonio Mckee, Fernando Vasconcelos, Dave Strasser and then...

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan - And Jason "Mayhem" Miller which is not on the record either.  

thaFormula.com - Break down that fight with Miller because I never got a chance to see that fight…

Pages: 1 | 2 | Next

feedback: info@thaformula.com

Be  sure to join the over 600,000 Industry Heads that have signed up to our exclusive mailing list & newsletter!!  Click here to join and receive our exclusive newsletter with info on our latest updates, industry news and more, only available to members. Leave contact info ( name, email address, city, state, and country) at info@thaformula.com.