Karo Parisyan - The New Face of Judo

THE NEW FACE OF JUDO by Joe Hall

Young buck Karo Parisyan brings judo back into focus with a surprising, inventive win at UFC 44.

SOME HAVE ARGUED it was the finest translation of judo to mixed martial arts they’d ever seen. What’s not debatable is the enthralling nature of judo stylist Karo Parisyan’s UFC debut.

With a pack of encumbering expectations strapped to his back, the 21-year-old’s unveiling turned into an exhibition of stirring throws and chained submissions, the likes of which are seldom seen in MMA.

“There was so much pressure on me,” says Parisyan, touted by many as judo’s latest—and brightest—delegate to the octagon. Even friend Jimmy Pedro, the renowned American judoka who won a world championship in 1999, informed Parisyan he “had to do good” because he was representing judo.

Pedro (and judo stylists everywhere) undoubtedly rejoiced when Parisyan’s opponent, Dave Strasser, took several unscheduled flights that abruptly crashed him to the canvas during the UFC 44 bout.

“Personally,” says Parisyan of his riveting debut, “I didn’t really care what I had to do. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, I’m a judo guy and I have to do judo.’” Even though his pre-fight mentality may have been set to “whatever it takes to win,” gut instinct kept pushing the same button.

Each time Parisyan clinched with his opponent, the close range triggered intuition and his hips disappeared in sudden dives and rapid swivels. Strasser, a worthy adversary, was initially tossed to the mat headfirst by his own snared arm. He returned to his feet, only to be whipped back to the ground a minute later. Then, in the closing sequence, Parisyan trapped him in a kimura shoulder lock while standing, and used the submission hold to acrobatically flip Strasser to his back. Before the veteran fighter could gather his wits from his second somersault of the night, Parisyan was curling his arm painfully up his back to conclude a stunning debut.

Although it took less than four minutes, Parisyan’s unparalleled display of throws in high-level MMA competition had instant implications. Video clips of his performance quickly appeared on the Web, while fans discussed his dazzling and unique grappling techniques. Judo practitioners and aficionados inundated Internet message boards to applaud the tremendous application of their martial art. Talk of judo’s utility surged forward from unfamiliar directions and, almost overnight, a great number of fans branded Parisyan the official representative of judo in MMA.

But he’s not so sure he should be flying the judo flag just yet.

“Maybe after a couple more fights,” Parisyan admits. “If I can display more strong judo, maybe I can say that.”

Since his win, however, he’s suddenly become known as “The Judo Guy.” Such a label is not surprising. While there’s no denying the evolution of MMA, the impact of certain styles is readily noticeable in the hybrid of fighting that has resulted. Brazilian jujutsu, for instance, seems to have a heavy presence, as does wrestling, boxing and kickboxing.

Judo’s contribution to today’s mixed-martial artist is a heated issue, and while it has undeniably pitched in, the widespread and effective use of the style’s throws has been conspicuously absent.

“I’ve seen really good judo players in the octagon before and they never did any throws or anything,” notes Parisyan, who has been ranked as high as No. 3 at 178 pounds in U.S. judo rankings.

The Armenian-born fighter has a hunch why judo practitioners before him failed to implement their grappling ability on the feet.

Few fighters with judo backgrounds wear a gi into an MMA bout, often because it is against the rules, and the chances of an opponent also wearing a gi are even more unlikely. Consequently, judo’s throws have been discarded with the gi—they have been lost in the transition to MMA.

Karo Parisyan, however, seems to hold a key to the seemingly indecipherable code. “I just feel it,” he says.

He has excelled where others have failed through an exceptional ability to convert his throwing skills to MMA, where the gi are gone and sweat compounds the delicate grip game judoka play. “You can adapt it from gi to no-gi,” he says. “I personally don’t know how I do it. I never think about; it just comes.”

Gokor Chivichyan, Parisyan’s trainer, may be the source of his student’s remarkable aptitude. “Karo adapted judo [to MMA] because I taught him judo without [the] gi,” Chivichyan insists. “You can be the world champion judo player, but if somebody takes the gi out, many of your techniques are [gone].”

Parisyan’s parents left their homeland of Armenia for Hollywood when their son was 6 years old. By the time young Karo turned 9, his father was seeking aid in corralling his spirited son. “I liked fighting,” Parisyan remembers. “I would put my pillows up and just beat the shit out of [them].”

In an effort to sublimate Karo’s abundant energy, his father took him to a local martial arts instructor—who turned out to be the one and only Chivichyan (also from Armenia). “I was destroying the house, beating on my sisters and stuff,” Parisyan remembers. His father, tossing in the towel, dropped him off at Chivichyan’s studio and offered one line of advice: “Just go train with anybody and get this thing out of you.”

“In less than two years of training,” Chivichyan recalls of his student, “he won the national championship [in judo]. The first national he won I could see he had [talent].” The youthful and gifted judo player became a precocious pugilist at the almost ludicrous age of 14. Confident in the teenager’s ability, Chivichyan accompanied him to Mexico for his first MMA bout.

“You’re fighting Daniel Lopez?” one of the event’s organizers ominously queried Parisyan. He answered yes, and was given a packet of liability papers to sign. Meanwhile, Parisyan’s father, who had made the trip, turned to Chivichyan and said, “You’re going to kill my kid right in front of my eyes.”

The 14-year-old did not waver. “I didn’t care what was going to happen,” he says. For five rounds, Parisyan says he dominated his 22-year-old opponent with throws and submission attempts, only to drop a hometown decision.

The loss meant little relative to the experience. “I was still a kid,” Parisyan says. “I had muscles that weren’t even developed. I thought I did good for a 14-year-old.”

In reflection, a premonition framed his first time in the ring perfectly. “What if I was 22 like this guy?” he wondered that night in Mexico. It was seven years later, at age 21, that his UFC debut enraptured fans.

For more than a decade, Parisyan has been developing under the Hayastan Grappling System, a style blended by “Judo” Gene LeBell and Chivichyan, which include adapted elements of wrestling, jujutsu, sambo, judo and other martial arts.

“My school … is a mixed-martial arts school,” Chivichyan says.

“We have our own leg locks, our own way to take people down, using a lot of judo as no-gi. I developed all that technique without the gi.

That’s why my students can throw people without the gi.” And even though Parisyan has been christened “The Judo Guy,” Chivichyan insists his fighter is much more: “He’s not only a judoka. He knows everything.”

“There is nobody today that actually goes in a NHB fight and says, ‘I’m a kickboxer’ or ‘I’m a judo guy,’” Parisyan says. “Everybody is cross-trained.”

Although he admits that his “grappling is 10 times better” than his striking, Parisyan adds, “I can still strike and I’m not a bad striker. I’ll strike with people with [whom] I know what I can do with kicking and punching.”

Despite a burgeoning career in MMA, the 21-year-old will not abandon his judo dreams. He hopes the future holds a pursuit of dual world-class accomplishments, though the divide between judo and MMA will make his a complicated journey. “They’re totally different sports,” he says. “It’s pretty hard to transfer from mixedmartial arts to judo, and just go win a judo tournament.”

Walking the judo/MMA line has been a beneficial balance thus far, though. In one UFC bout, he demonstrated a set of skills so fresh and enlivening, some pundits have speculated that the next element of MMA’s evolution may come via Karo Parisyan’s repertoire. He plans on pushing the bar. “Basically, in all my fights, I’m going to try to do the same thing that I tried to do to Strasser. That’s just the way I fight. I don’t settle. I’m always on offense. I always want to punch, kick, throw, takedown, [and force] submission.”

It is a heavy burden indeed, but Karo Parisyan may offer the ultimate translation of judo’s valuable throwing techniques to MMA.

At 21 years old, his future could mirror the sport’s future.

from Black Belt magazine