February 2010 Schedule ( 4 WINS - 2 LOSS - 0 DRAW )

MMA - LOSS

February 6, 2010

Gor Harutunian

Loss - Paris France

BOXING - WIN

February 12, 2010

Gapo Tolmajyan
wins via KO in the 4th

MUAY THAI - WIN

February 13, 2010

Gago Drago Defeats
Yutaro Yamauchi via Decision

MMA - LOSS

February 19, 2010

Jared Papazian

looses to Shad Smith
via Triangle Submission

February 19, 2010

Leva Kirakosyan

beats Scott Lawson
via TKO in the 3rd
to capture the Vacant EBU Super Featherweight Title

MMA - WIN

February 27, 2010

Gennady Martirosyan

TKO's Aziz Daari
Successfully Defends
WBO EUROPEAN TITLE

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Vania's Views

Mixed Martial Arts:
A Misconceived Perception
of a Legitimate Discipline

by: Vania Asmerian - 02/20/10

Mixed Martial Arts fighters are commonly stereotyped as being violent, and are often labeled "angry, aggressive, and emotionally driven”.  In order to examine where these misconceptions stem from, I have spent several weeks getting to know them to better  understand what makes these combat sports athletes who they are and what they do. My time spent with them, has led me to the conclusion that not only are fighters falsely stereotyped, but also in fact, are no different then you or me: good people simply trying to achieve their goals. In addition, what I found most often goes unnoticed, is the heart it takes for these fighters to pursue their dreams. It is not only physically exhausting, but also mentally draining.

This underlying commonality led me to question the Hyefighters’ convictions, which in turn, drove my curiosity further.  Why would anyone subject themselves to this level of affliction? What would drive a man to stand face to face in a ring or a cage with another man and choose to use brutal violence as a barometer for victory? For Hyefighter WEC lightweight Manny Gamburyan, it was an escape from his troubles in school. In the safety of the cage, he found refuge, a place to release his frustrations. He gained focus and learned to regain control of his entire being.  “I was always getting into trouble, so finally my dad told me that I need to go train and took me to Gokor Chivichyan Hayastan Academy, in North Hollywood, and that changed my life.” For another Hyefighter, WEC lightweight Karen Darabedyan, training began at a very early time in his life, at the tender age of five, in many different techniques, such as karate, boxing, judo, stand-up and grappling. He, along with his fellow HyeFighters, such as Bellator featherweight Georgi Karakhanyan and Strikeforce light-heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi, are to maintain a strict diet, train intensively, and endure the strikes and blows that come with the sport. It is a lifestyle. As the mainstream market continues struggling to accept and follow MMA, I feel it is my responsibility to shine light on this art form and help tear town the "bruitish" stereotypes that surround the sport.

So, I dug deeper into the realms of the the daily life of an Armenian fighter. It was not all glitz and glamour. The twice-a-day tedious training takes a major toll on an individual's body, both physically and mentally. The change in diet to cut weight, sometimes up to 20 pounds, is overwhelming at times, and quite difficult. The change in lifestyle is in itself tiresome. Yet, the rush of adrenaline and sweet taste of victory are an unmatched reward to the energy that goes into transforming into a professional fighter. Having a dream that comes to life is something that everyone strives for in this world. The pursuit of happiness has inspired many Armenian fighters to plot their paths to greatness, or downfall, depending on their level of commitment. I now thoroughly understand. My goal is to allow others to step into a fighters shoes and try to appreciate their chosen profession as an art form and not a form of attack.

Editor's note: Vania Asmerian will be contributing regularly to HyeFighters.com

Fight Results

HyeFighters Leva Kirakosyan
Wins The European
Junior Lightweight Championship

HyeFighter Leva Kirakosyan became a two-time European junior lightweight champion today with a dominant win over Scott Lawton in Stoke.

Kirakosyan (32-5, 22 KO) dropped Lawton (27-6-1, 6 KO) at 40 seconds of the first round, and Lawton was timid for the remainder of the round, playing defense the entire time. Near the end of the second round, Lawton was rocked against the ropes, and referee Soren Saugmann jumped in to give him a standing eight count. Lawton was clearly on bad legs, and the referee frankly could and even should have stopped it there. Instead, Lawton got to go back, with the bell ringing before he could take any more punishment.

Kirakosyan finished him off early in the third, putting him back on the ropes right away and unloading. When Lawton decided to drop his left hand, a thudding right snapped his head back, and Saugmann mercifully stopped the bout.

Pictures

HyeFighter Champion

Arthur Abraham visits
Glendale Prior to His March 6th Fight
February 15, 2010

Click on Picture to view album

Feature News

HyeFighters Featured in March 30th
Issue of Ultimate MMA Magazine

The Hye Fighters Proudly Represent Armenia - from Ultimate MMA by Breanna Armstrong

“You have to have a lot of heart,” says Karen Darabedyan. “We fight with our hearts and leave everything in the cage. I think that is what it means to be a true Hye fighter.”

The WEC fighter is a member the Hye Fighters, an elite group of fighters who represent their country and culture at all times in the cage. Representing Armenia is their No. 1 goal.

Araz Araradian started the Hye Fighters Organization in August 2007. After becoming involved in the sport, Araz decided to create a Website that would showcase all Armenians who are professional fighters.

The site has every Armenian fighter’s updates with profiles on each fighter with links to their personal websites, which Araz created for each of them free of charge. There is also a feature of the Hye Fighter of the month.

Now, two years after the launch of the group driven by Arazs’ passion to promote these fighters, the Hye Fighters have been recognized beyond the fight industry and into their communities.

“We all look up to these guys, I respect their hard work and their dedication to represent our Armenian culture,” says Jerry Hanesse, the owner of Cage Alliance who also sponsors most of the Hye Fighters.

Since the site’s launch in 2007, Hye Fighters has grown significantly. They now have 16 pro MMA fighters, including StrikeForce’s light-heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi, WEC lightweight Karen Darbedyan, WEC lightweight Manny Gamburyan and Bellator lightweight Georgi Karakhanyan.

Click on Picture to view album

“The difference of Armenian fighters and others is the heart,” says Gamburyan. “The heart and the way that we represent ourselves is unreal.”

Gokor Chivichyan, Gamburyan’s trainer, says the group is very special to him.

“They are like a family to me,” says Chivichyan. “When they win, it’s my win. They train very hard and Hye Fighters has brought them together. They lift each other up and I see that and it makes me very happy.”

 

Beyond MMA
Hye Fighters also have nine professional muay Thai fighters, including WBC muayThai International Welterweight Champion, Edmond Tarverdyan and 2009 K-1 World MAX champion and WKN Intercontinental middleweight muay thai champion, Giorgio Petrosyan. There are 48 professional Hye fighter boxers as well.

Fight Results

HyeFighters Gapo Tolmajyan
Wins VIA KO in the 4th

With his young boxing career having been characterized by technical boxing prowess, HyeFighter Gapo “The Ghost” Tolmajyan has seemingly added the attribute of power punching to his repertoire.  The Glendale fighter was dominant in defeating veteran journeyman Anthony Martinez via fourth-round knockout in a scheduled four-round lightweight bout on Friday night at the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula.

“Now he’s adjusting to the professional style of fighting,” said Tolmajyan’s trainer, Edmond Tarverdyan. “And now he’s got more con- fidence.”   Tolmajyan caught Martinez with a devastating left uppercut to finish the fight at the 2:14 mark of the fourth round. Tolmajyan, who improved to 7-1 with his second career knockout, floored Martinez (21-34-3) in the third round, as well, doing the damage with a right hook.  “He started sitting down on his punches,” said Tarverdyan of his prospect’s power surge. “From start to finish, it was a one-sided fight.”

While Martinez’ record is hardly impressive, Tolmajyan’s knockout was, as Martinez, who has been facing a steady stream of up-and-coming prospects, was not stopped in his previous six fights and only 10 of his losses have come via KO.

Tolmajyan’s original opponent dropped out of the fight and the Martinez bout came about roughly a week before Friday, according to Tarverdyan. Originally it was scheduled for six rounds, but the California State Athletic Commission changed it to four rounds due to the late notice of the bout. Tolmajyan was also scheduled to fight in January in Glendale, but an opponent never transpired, thus Tolmajyan’s win on Friday was his first bout since a June 12, 2009 majority decision victory in Glendale.

Tarverdyan said he was not concerned with the layoff, however.  “We had a really tough training camp,” said the head of the Glendale Fighting Club. “He was ready.”

Tolmajyan had been sparring at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym, as well, leading into the bout.“Gabriel looked very good and very confident,” Tarverdyan said.

Tarverdyan sees a quick step up in competition on the agenda for the 23-year-old Tolmajyan, who has fought more than 300 amateur fights.  “I want to put Gabriel up against guys with good records,” Tarverdyan said. “He could out box a lot of fighters. I’m confident that he’s a great boxer.”

Upcoming Fight

HyeFighter Jared Papazian

In Action Again

Training Pictures

HyeFighter Gegard Mousasi

Training at Main Event Gym &
Glendale Fighting Club
 In Glendale
January 25, 2010

Click on Picture to view album

Gegard Mousasi Training at GFC - Hitting Mitts

Click on picture to view album

Fight News

HyeFighter Georgi Karakhanyan
"I Like To Fight Alot"

When Bellator Fighting Championships began releasing the names of those who would populate their 2010 roster, eyebrows began to progressively raise with each passing day's announced signing. They raised considerably more when the featherweight tournament was confirmed to include one Georgi Karakhanyan.

“Georgi K.” is how he is endearingly referred to by most. “Insane” is how he fights and so it serves as a fitting nickname for someone who has progressed so much in such a compressed period of time. In just over 3 years of professional fighting, he has compiled an otherworldly 12-1 record and has quickly become the subject of future top 10, 145 pound discussions. He hasn't trained for much longer than that either and he didn't originally intend on dedicating his future to the sport of MMA.

“I started getting into Brazilian jiu jitsu in April of 2006. It was nothing serious, nothing like 'oh I was going to become a professional fighter' or 'I was going to be in MMA.' It was basically just to see what Brazilian jiu jitsu was all about,” said Georgi when asked about his trek into MMA. 3 short years may indicate that he was a natural at the Brazilian martial art, but it was hard work and determination that yielded the success story we see today.

“I started a [Brazilian jiu jitsu] class, I was getting tapped too many times. I was getting frustrated so I decided to get better and just train more,” and then came the call from King of thae Cage, “After about 6 months of training, I got offered a fight at King of the Cage and I just took it. I won that fight by guillotine choke which was the only submission I knew and I was good at. After that fight I just made up my mind. I kind of liked that feeling of walking out, the adrenaline and all that, the crowd, so I just decided to see how far I could take it and now I'm here, fighting for Bellator.”

Though Bellator seems to be a leap up in exposure, it isn't quite a leap in competition. Georgi's last victory was over an established prospect himself in Albert Rios, who a few short weeks ago took out UFC veteran and Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist, Alberto Crane. That fight was a giant notch in his hopeful future Bellator featherweight belt. His reaction was simple: he showed his growth as a fighter.

“When I fought that fight, I didn't show lots of my standup 'cause a lot of people were telling me he's stronger than me, he's going to outwrestle me, so I was just trying to prove a point, that I could take him down. Actually, when the fight started I was just working on my takedown defense and he couldn't take me down and I was just trying to prove people wrong, from that fight. That I could defend and I could take Albert Rios down.”

He understands what that accomplishment denotes and recognizes the talent level of his former opponent, “He had a lot of hype behind him because he fought in Affliction. But now, me and Albert are friends. I was actually at the fight last weekend, rooting for him when he was fighting Alberto Crane and he looked really good. That makes me look good!” he reflected with a chuckle.

That inherent humility is further apparent in his recollection of the one loss he has sustained thus far in competition. The Albert Rios fight was the culmination of the after-effects from that loss at the hands of Chris David.

“I'm really happy I lost 'cause I learned a lot. I'm a really humble person, I like to learn. I mean, I still have so much left to learn, I'm going to learn throughout my career so it was a good experience...something that could not get out of my head told me 'okay you need to work on your wrestling' so now I've been working a lot with Olympic caliber wrestlers and division I wrestlers so it's good.”

What better way to shore up your weakness than learning from someone who is among the world's best? So he became a mainstay with a southern California wrestling gym, “I train with SK Golden Boys out of North Hollywood, that's where I train my wrestling with Martin Barberyan, that's the Olympic wrestler, Andy Darmenjyan.”

In order to be well-rounded, the modern mixed martial artist needs to focus on every aspect, a fact well known to rising stars. Georgi gets that multiple pronged approach from Rancho Cucamonga's Millennia MMA gym. And he couldn't be happier with the tutelage he receives there.

“Training is good there. We have Romie Aram, our MMA instructor and Brazilian jiu jitsu instructor so we have lots of experience, he really helps us a lot. And we have lots of good quality guys, Manny Tapia, Charlie Valencia and the current King of the Cage champion Rick Legere so just training with those guys is really good. It keeps you really sharp and gets your game up there,” but for that extra bit of assistance to improve that game, “I also go to Glendale Fight Club and Gold Coast in Burbank.”

Even when he's not fighting or training, he has become obsessed with his chosen profession. Said Georgi of those brief periods when he is not training for a specific opponent, “I teach a lot. I work with the kids and I teach a lot of cardio kickboxing classes. Other than that, I just watch lots of fights. I like to learn from professional fighters and professional boxers, muay thai fighters. I just watch lots of fights and just learn.”

When Bellator came calling, Georgi was already committed to fight on January 24th at Called Out MMA 2. Though that organization seems to also be supplanting itself into the big time, a television deal was reached by Bellator and they weren't thrilled with the idea of him risking his record against another unknown prospect. “You know I had like six fights not happen and I was supposed to fight January 24th at the Called Out against Vince Ortiz but I didn't get the approval from Bellator 'cause they though he was going to be tough.”

If Georgi had it his way, he would've fought that fight anyways. Vince Ortiz was on a 7 fight winning streak at the time and he viewed him as a solid test. He didn't like being denied such a chance, “It was frustrating because I'm a person that likes to fight a lot...”

For someone who loves to fight, it is not an easy pill to swallow when cancellations occur. It will have been almost a year since he last tasted competition, all through no fault of his own. According to Georgi, Ortiz was not the only opponent who lucked out, “Basically, lots of fights didn't come through [last year]. I had so many fights lined up. Like Bao Quach broke his hand and there's lots of them just, I don't know. It's frustrating.”

Bao Quach was also recently announced as a competitor in the Bellator tournament and he has his sights on eventually getting that bout with Georgi, “I heard he said he's got unfinished business so it's all good.” Not one to mince words, Georgi opted not to comment on the public call out, “I don't do lots of talking about my opponent. I'm gonna train more then I talk and so we'll see what happens when we fight.”

This sort of banter between fighters and hype-building exposure is new to the Armenian-American. More exposure is on the way and he isn't oblivious to what that means. He seemed excited at the prospect of the forthcoming national attention he will get through the burgeoning promotion, “Bellator is a really good organization to fight for and they have a really good deal with NBC, Telemundo, and it's going to be live on Fox Sports. It's good exposure for me, to show myself and it's a great feeling to fight for a good organization right now.”

He truly believes he is ready for whatever lies ahead, including all of the prospective opponents, “The Bellator tournament is stacked with a lot of good and tough fighters so it doesn't matter to me who the opponent is and I'm not going to call out anyone. I'm just ready for any of those guys.”

The winner of this tournament gets a crack at the current Bellator champ, Joe Soto. Georgi likes his chances. Said he of that possible bout with Soto, “I think I match up really good. I'm an unknown fighter, nobody actually knows about me except my training partners. He might underestimate me or whatever but I think I match up really good. My wrestling's really good, I think my wrestling is a bit underestimated,” and almost as if he expects to be the man with that shot, he added, “Should be a good fight.”

Although he may not realize it, a lot of people are picking him to win that tournament. When asked what he thought about being the favorite, his combination of humility and confidence shined yet again, “You know...I'm going to keep my head clear. I'm not going to go thinking 'oh I'm going to win it' and start listening to all that hype. Basically, to beat those guys, I just need to focus, keep training hard, take it one fight at a time and see how it goes. But I can see myself doing pretty well.”

The advantage of being a relative unknown is that underestimation comes with the territory. Rios may have been surprised by Georgi's amazing growth as a wrestler and others may be surprised to learn that he has come a long way in his striking. Boasting 8 wins by submission, he expects people to overlook his striking ability, “Hopefully they know what to expect in my submission game but nobody knows my stand up game so that's really good. Cuz I'm going to do lots of standup in my Bellator fight.”

One of the brightest young stars in MMA is also an obscure talent. That is a dangerous foundation for a career and one that usually results in a burst onto the scene of public visibility. There is little doubt that this kid shows an immeasurable amount of potential and the perfect attitude to become a champion one day. It is really only a matter of time until he realizes the results of what all his hard work in the last 4 years will bring him.

This introduction is but a speck on the glass of what is to come. On April 8th, the world will begin to know the name Georgi Karakhanyan. A glimpse: his favorite cereal is Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Georgi would like to thank Original Grappler, Nutri Shop out of Riverside, California, and Clinch Gear.

Exclusive Videos

Exclusive Videos of
HyeFighter Gegard Mousasi

Sarkis Cholakyan, D.C.

10510 Victory Boulevard, Suite 1011

North Hollywood, California 91606

Tel: (818) 755-9977

Fax: (818) 755-9917

Chiropractor of the HyeFighters