Karo Parisyan has been to hell and back over the past few years, and will look to his fight this Thursday vs. Canadian Ryan Ford at MMA 1 Live: London to get his career back on track.
He spoke about his mental state, battling his demons, his training progress, and his upcoming opponent in an exclusive interview with hyefighters.com and posted on MMACanada.net.
Here are some of the highlights of the interview, which give a good look at Karo’s frame of mind going into fight week.
How are you feeling Karo, what’s going on?
“Back to square one again,” he stated with a large sigh. “I struggled with demons for three years. A lot of bad stuff, personal stuff. Thank God I am overcoming stuff.”
So, are all the demons behind you now?
“sort of yeah, I’m looking back and they still want to wave at me so I’m flipping them off.” he laughs. “At the time being I’m training, I feel healthier, I look healthier. Today, I was not too happy with my training. I did not get pushed around or anything, I was still throwing guys in the clinch but when I walk in there, I want to be the MAN.”
“I want the other guys to think you clinch with me you are going on a roller coaster ride. I’m not feeling that exact confidence yet but I will.”
When asked if he was all done with the drug addiction that people were accusing him of in the online chat world Karo said that he was not addicted to drugs or pain killers specifically, and went on to state that those pain killers that he was taking for injury were a downward spiral that caused a lot of his anxiety leading up to his fights.
How is the anxiety?
It’s done. Gone. I’m good, I’m fine. I don’t have it.
He then continued on a bit of a rant saying that when you have a little bit of a name in life people like to take a piece of a hamburger and make it into a whole cow, no doubt referring to how people can blow things out of proportion when a little bit of the story gets out.
The focus then turned to his upcoming fight, when he was asked,
Do you know much about Ford?
“I’ve met him in Canada. Big black guy, strong, I thought he was a light-heavyweight. They offered ten to twelve guys in Canada the fight and no one would take it. He took the fight and I want say thank you to him for that.”
“I want to show people that I’m back fighting, I’m back performing. It’s not that Karo that people say, ‘look at him, he doesn’t look right, he doesn’t do this do that. I want people to say dude, he’s back, he’s fighting.'”
He also gave a pretty clear sign of what he thinks Ford’s chances are in this fight.
“God forbid I get hit by lightning and the fight doesn’t go my way, people will still say that’s the Karo we saw fighting Diaz or Serra or Lytle.”
Finally, he was asked if he had anything to prove to himself in his comeback bid?
“First and foremost I want this for myself. It got to the point with me where the smallest things turned into the biggest things and the next thing you know I’m pulling out of fights. I want to get that confidence up there, I’m 29 years old and have at least five more years in me to go out there and bang!
“I’m in a deep hole, but I am crawling out.”
Here’s hoping that crawl fight with Ford can turn into walking fights and then running fights for “The Heat” in his return.
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