Georgi Karakhanyan

Georgi Karakhanyan is an Armenian mixed martial artist who competes in the featherweight division. He is the current World Series of Fighting Featherweight Champion.

Background

Georgi was born in Moscow to Armenian parents, but is now an American citizen. He was raised in Moscow, Russia. He was introduced to martial arts by his father at the age of six (Georgi’s father has a black belt third dan in Karate Do Shotokan and he’s also a SAMBO expert). Georgi was just eight years old when he first fought in a full contact martial arts competition. He began training in martial arts at a young age, but found his true love in soccer. He competed at both the amateur and professional levels in Russia, Spain and U.S. before coming to the United States and settling in Riverside, California.^{[citation needed]}

Soccer

Georgi’s dreams completely changed after the 1994 World Cup. Inspired by world soccer legends Ronaldo, Romario, Roberto Baggio and Georghe Hagi, Georgi made a strong decision to become a professional soccer player. He played in world class clubs TORPEDO Moscow and SPARTAK Moscow. After Georgi’s family moved to Tarragona, Spain he continued practicing soccer with the professional club Gimnàstic de Tarragona (the largest club in the Provincia de Tarragona and one of the biggest in the Catalunya region). Georgi continued to pursue his passion for soccer after his family moved to the United States. He played with the distinguished soccer club, the San Diego Nomads, a U.S. Olympic Development Program for players under the age of 18. He also trained and played for the professional indoor soccer club, the San Diego Sockers of the MISL.

MMA career

After his soccer career, he began his MMA career while living and training at United Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with Instructor, Rommel Dunbar in Riverside, California. Georgi made his first professional MMA debut on October 13, 2006 just after six months of training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Although Georgi never dreamt about cage fighting, winning his very first fight against a veteran MMA fighter in the KOTC, gave him enormous confidence and belief that he is on the right path which fueled his desire to give MMA all he had. He joined the Bellator Fighting Championships to take part in their Season 2 Featherweight Tournament and Season 4 Featherweight Tournament. On December 2, 2011, Karakhanyan won the Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Championship.

Bellator Fighting Championships

In 2009, Georgi signed with Bellator Fighting Championships and was part of the eight-man Featherweight Tournament of Bellator Fighting Championships: Season Two in 2010. In the first round, he took on the veteran fighter Bao Quach at Bellator 13. Karakhanyan won the fight via knockout (knee) at 4:05 of the first round, knocking Quach unconscious. In the semifinals, Georgi faced highly acclimated wrestler and World Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion Joe Warren (Ranked #8 featherweight in the world) at Bellator 18 and lost the fight via unanimous decision. Joe Warren ended up winning the tournament and becoming the 145 lb Bellator Champion.

In 2011, Georgi returned for Bellator Fighting Championships: Season Four and faced Patricio Freire (Ranked #9 featherweight in the world) in the first round. Karakhanyan lost via TKO (punches) in the third round. Patricio would also end up winning the tournament.

Tachi Palace Fights

On December 2, 2011 at TPF 11: Redempton, Karakhanyan made his Tachi Palace Fights debut against former Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Champion Isaac DeJesus for the vacant Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Championship. De Jesus had never lost his title in a bout; he was stripped of it when he failed to make weight. Karakhanyan defeated De Jesus via triangle choke at 4:02 in the first round to become the new Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Champion.

Karakhanyan was scheduled to fight The Ultimate Fighter 14 participant Micah Miller on March 9, 2012 at TPF 12: Second Coming in the first defense of his title, but the fight was later canceled due to an illness from Karakhanyan. The bout was moved back to September 7, 2012 at TPF 14: Validation. Karakhanyan defeated Miller via unanimous decision to retain his Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Championship. Karakhanyan became the first Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Champion to defend his title.

He later vacated the title in 2013 when he signed with World Series of Fighting.

DREAM

Georgi defeated DREAM Featherweight Champion Hiroyuki Takaya at Dream 18 (Dream 18 & Glory 4 Tokyo) on December 31, 2012 via split decision. The scorecard that gave the fight to Takaya was highly controversial, as Karakhanyan was considered by many to be the clear winner.^[1]

World Series of Fighting

Karakhanyan competed on the main card in a fight against Waylon Lowe at World Series of Fighting 5 on September 14, 2013. He won the fight via submission in the first round.

In November 2013, it was announced that Karakhanyan would be fighting for the inaugural WSOF Featherweight Championship against Rick Glenn at WSOF 7.^[2] But an injury to Glenn has forced him out of the title bout and replaced by undefeated featherweight Lance Palmer.^[3] Karakhanyan won the bout via submission in the third round to become WSOF's first featherweight champion.^[4]

Boxing

Georgi defeated Tatsuro Irie on May 5, 2012 in his promotional boxing debut at welterweight.

Personal life

Georgi is a devoted Vegetarian. He believes in Vegetarianism and gives it a lot of credit for his athletic strength. He has the following tattoos: writing "only god can judge me", in Russian, in his chest; an Armenian Cross on his right rib; and his last name in Armenian on the left rib. Georgi is a big fan of Deftones, and often uses their song 2000 song "Knife Party" as his entrance music when he fights. He currently is an instructor at MILLENNIA in Rancho Cucamonga, CA and is constantly training at Millennia MMA to get better.

Championships and accomplishments

Mixed martial arts

• Tachi Palace Fights
  • TPF Featherweight Champion (One time)

• World Series of Fighting
  • WSOF Featherweight Championship (One time, current)

Jiu Jitsu

• Grapplers Quest
  • Grapplers Quest 2012 Men's No Gi Advanced 150 lb-159.9 lb Champion

Mixed martial arts record

Boxing record

Result	Record	Opponent	Method	Date	Round	Location	Notes
xWin	1–0	Tatsuro Irie	UD	02012-05-05May 5, 2012	4	Hollywood Park Casino, Inglewood, California	Boxing Debut

References

1. ↑ "DREAM 18 - GLORY 4 NYE Results and Gifs: Georgi Karakhanyan beats up Hiroyuki Takaya". bloodyelbow.com. Retrieved 31 December 2012. 
2. ↑ "Rick Glenn vs. Georgi Karakhanyan to crown WSOF’s first featherweight champion on Dec. 7". 
3. ↑ "GEORGI KARAKHANYAN TO FACE UNBEATEN LANCE PALMER FOR WSOF FEATHERWEIGHT TITLE". 
4. ↑ Mike Bohn (2013-12-07). "WSOF 7 results: Georgi Karakhanyan submits Lance Palmer for inaugural featherweight title". mmajunkie.com. Retrieved 2013-12-07. 

External links

• Professional MMA record for Georgi Karakhanyan from Sherdog
• http://www.georgimma.com/
• https://www.twitter.com/georgimma
• Is Georgi Karakhanyan the Most Dangerous Featherweight in Bellator?
• Recapping With Georgi Karakhanyan - I Like To Fight A Lot
• Georgi Karakhanyan ~ The Humble And The Insane
• Fight Path: Bellator's Georgi Karakhanyan on the path from soccer star to "Insane"
• http://www.hyefighters.com