Georgi Karakhanyan is an Armenian professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Featherweight division of Bellator MMA. A professional competitor since 2006, Karakhanyan has also formerly competed for the World Series of Fighting, DREAM, Tachi Palace Fights, and King of the Cage. Karakhanyan is also the former WSOF Featherweight Champion.
Video Georgi Karakhanyan
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. He is a devoted vegetarian.
Maps Georgi Karakhanyan
Soccer
Georgi's dreams completely changed after the 1994 World Cup. Inspired by world soccer legends Ronaldo, Romario, Roberto Baggio and Gheorghe Hagi, Georgi made a strong decision to become a professional soccer player. He played in clubs Torpedo Moscow and Spartak Moscow. After Georgi's family moved to Tarragona, Spain he continued practicing soccer with the professional club Gimnà stic 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.
Mixed martial arts career
Early 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 Karakhanyan 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 Bellator to take part in their Season Two Featherweight Tournament and Season Four Featherweight Tournament. On December 2, 2011, Karakhanyan won the Tachi Palace Fights Featherweight Championship.
Bellator
In 2009, Georgi signed with Bellator 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 became the Bellator Featherweight 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.
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. But an injury to Glenn has forced him out of the title bout and replaced by undefeated featherweight Lance Palmer. Karakhanyan won the bout via submission in the third round to become WSOF's first featherweight champion.
Karakhanyan made the first defense of his title on June 21, 2014 at World Series of Fighting 10: Branch vs. Taylor against Rick Glenn. Despite controlling most of the first round via submission attempts, Karakhanyan lost his title when he elected not to continue between the second and third round due to a rib injury.
Return to Bellator
On September 30 Bellator announced that they have re-signed Karakhanyan to a multi-fight contract.
In his return, Karakhanyan faced Bubba Jenkins on January 16, 2015 at Bellator 132. He won the fight via technical submission in the first round. After the bout, Scott Coker announced that Karakhanyan would fight for the Featherweight title next.
Karakhanyan was expected to challenge PatrÃcio Freire for his Bellator Featherweight Championship in a rematch on June 19, 2015 at Bellator 138. However, Karakhanyan pulled out of the fight due to a torn ACL and was replaced by Bellator Season Ten Featherweight tournament winner Daniel Weichel.
Karakhanyan faced Daniel Weichel on December 4, 2015 at Bellator 147. He lost the fight via unanimous decision.
After losing two fights in a row, Karakhanyan faced Bubba Jenkins in a rematch at Bellator 160 on August 26, 2016. Jenkins was favored to win the rematch, but Karakhanyan won again, this time via knock out the first minute into the first round.
Karakhanyan made a quick return to the cage as he faced Kirill Medvedovsky at Bellator 164 on November 10, 2016. He won the fight via TKO due to an injury in the first round.
Karakhanyan faced Emmanuel Sanchez at Bellator 170 on January 21, 2017. He lost the fight via majority decision.
Karakhanyan faced Daniel Pineda at Bellator 182 on August 25, 2017. He won the fight via TKO due to a doctor stoppage on a cut Pineda had suffered in the second round.
Boxing
Georgi defeated Tatsuro Irie on May 5, 2012 in his promotional boxing debut at Welterweight.
Championships and accomplishments
Mixed martial arts
- Tachi Palace Fights
- TPF Featherweight Champion (One time)
- World Series of Fighting
- WSOF Featherweight Championship (One time)
Jiu Jitsu
- Grapplers Quest
- Grapplers Quest 2012 Men's No Gi Advanced 150 lb-159.9 lb Champion
Mixed martial arts record
Boxing record
See also
- List of male mixed martial artists
References
External links
- Professional MMA record for Georgi Karakhanyan from Sherdog
- http://www.georgimma.com/
- Georgi Karakhanyan on Twitter
- 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
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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