Ryan “The Real Deal” Ford scored a huge victory for his career tonight as he stopped veteran fighter Karo Parisyan with a vicious knee to the head that cut Parisyan deeply, causing the ringside doctor to put an end to the bout.
The fight was a real battle of strength between the two fighters with some on hand calling it the “Fight of The Year” in Canada so far for 2011. While I would still tip my hat to Aldo-Hominick from UFC 129 for that crown, this was a fight with two tough and hungry men both going for broke for two solid rounds.
Parisyan showed up, folks, and he brought his judo arsenal with him, throwing Ford around a few times with his textbook technique and strength. Ford countered with a huge slam in the second round, and the two were in close quarters all night.
Parisyan held most of the advantage in the clinch and gained dominant position on Ford for most of the second round and I had him winning the fight before the explosive knee put a sudden halt to the affair.
“My game plan was to you know stand up and knock him out but well you know me I’m kinda stubborn,” Ford said, smiling.
“I got in there, you know, I got dumped a few times but I knew that was gonna happen, I just wanted to see what it was like because I know I’m gonna be stepping up and facing some tougher guys and some guys with the same judo skills as Karo.”
He did agree when asked if it was the biggest win of his career. “Yeah you know I would say so,” he said. “It’s Karo Parisyan, right, tough guy, fought the who’s who, and I beat him.”
Ford did beat him. He got the win and it was a very solid fight.
As for Parisyan, he came ready. He fought for the fans and gave a beautiful display of how judo can be implemented in a fight to gain a victory. He was winning the fight. It says here that he would have won had the doctor not stopped it, but the doctor did stop it and it was a justified stop due to a horrible gash.
Parisyan brought his game and some class with him to the John Labatt Center, as he stood in the ring and spoke to the fans after all the while with a towel pressuring the cut.
“I wanted to come here and prove to myself that I could still get in here and fight and I did that,” he said, and I would agree. “I was winning the fight and he caught me with a good knee, I wanted to continue fighting but the doctor stopped the fight because the cut is too deep.” He went on to show some great class, and gave a sign that he is a bit of a changed man.
“I’m taking nothing away from Ryan Ford. He won and hey Canada, I want to say thank you to all of you for coming out, and I want to thank you all for supporting this sport.”
I want to say thanks to Parisyan for coming in and putting on a great performance.
The biggest buzz in the building and the loudest roar of the night came at the intermission when UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones made a special appearance in the octagon (see video).
Jones was also on hand all day at the MMA Expo and was signing autographs, posing for pictures and being extremely pleasant and accessible to fans young and old.
In the co-main event of the evening, veteran Brazilian fighter Marcus Aurelio pulled out a lightning fast arm bar submission after being slammed heavily by a game late replacement Matt McGrath of P.E.I. He won at 1:29 of the first round.
The rest of the results from the show:
Lyndon Whitlock defeated Daniel Longbeen via triangle choke first round.
Bo Harris defeated Brent Franczuz by unanimous decision.
Allan Wilson defeated Theo Toney via rear naked choke second round.
Chuck Mady defeated James Haourt via arm bar 2:22 first round.
Jason Saggo defeated Derek Boyle via rear naked choke 2:18 third round.
Dwight Wakabayashi is a Correspondent for Bleacher Report. (Also a Correspondent for MMACanada.net) All quotes were obtained first-hand.
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