Armenian fightersmake their mark in MMA

Parisyan, Gamburyan and Mitichyan allfeatured on next UFC Fight Night

By David A. Avila MSNBC contributor updated 10:58 a.m. PT, Thurs., March. 13, 2008

Don’t sleep on the Armenians.

Armenians are no strangers to American culture, and throughout the past century they’ve made their contributions to the world of entertainment.

Now they’re hitting the fight cage.

Three high-powered Armenian mixed martial artists, Karo “the Heat” Parisyan, Roman Mitichyan and Manvel “the Anvil” Gamburyan from North Hollywood are taking part in the Ultimate Fight Night show in Broomfield, Colorado on Wednesday April 2. It will be televised on Spike TV.

It’s Armenian power at its finest.

About six to eight million Armenians live in Eurasia. Another one million live in the United States. In the past century they’ve made contributions in all phases of the entertainment world and culture.

From writer William Saroyan to actress-singer Cher, Armenian Americans have brought something extra that all recognize as special. It’s that something special that MMA fighters Parisyan, Mitichyan and Gamburyan want to bring to the sport.

They all love to fight.

As teens Gamburyan and Parisyan were so anxious to get in the cage they crossed the border into crazy Tijuana, Mexico and tangled with older professional fighters. It didn’t matter to them if they were too young or it was too dangerous.

“My parents didn’t want me to do it,” said Gamburyan about his baptism into MMA at 15. “They were really against it and asked me if I was sure.”

Parisyan echoes those sentiments.

“I was fighting for free in judo and never made a penny. Instead I was paying to fight in judo,” said Parisyan who was 14 years old when he traveled to Mexico to fight. “I fought a guy who was 23 years old and 10-0. I fought him for five rounds and pretty much beat the crap out of him.”

That was all the proof the Armenian cousins needed. MMA was their world and they were going to stick to it.

“I had no plans to be a doctor or lawyer. I’m a very hot-blooded kid so fighting was my task,” Parisyan (18-4) says. “I love to fight, kick and punch and show my dominance. Not take advantage of it, but in the culture I come from, it’s right up my alley.”

Can you imagine a family with two MMA fighters? It must have been a pretty physical upbringing.

As a child Parisyan was pretty rambunctious and always ready to scrap. His father put him into grappling classes with master teachers Gokor Chivichyan and Gene LeBell. His cousin Gamburyan joined him at the fight club in Glendale. It’s also where they met Mitichyan.

Glendale grappling
“We come from Gokor Chivichyan’s academy. He owns a grappling system and Gene LeBell works with us in judo. He’s one of the best,” said Mitichyan, who’s been training in martial arts since age eight.

Mitichyan (5-1) also trains in Sambo. He was good enough in the discipline to place third while representing Team USA in Panama in 2002.

“Fedor (Emelianenko” trains in the same thing,” Mitichyan, 29, says. “It’s called self-defense without weapons. There’s amateur Sambo and combat Sambo. Or just call it MMA.”

Mitichyan is matched against George Sotiropoulos, a Greek fighting out of Australia.

“We were in Ultimate Fighter 6 together,” Mitichyan says of his next opponent. “I didn’t get a chance to fight because I got injured. But I know George from there and he’s a good fighter.”

Another Ultimate Fighter alum is Gamburyan, who made it to the Ultimate Fighter 5 finals where he suffered a dislocated shoulder and was forced to submit during the fight with Nate Diaz last year. No matter, the fighter known as “the Anvil” has returned healthy and deadly. A quick win over Nate Mohr last December proved that.

“Ultimate Fighter was the craziest thing that happened to me and the hardest thing,” says Gamburyan, a junior national champion in judo for multiple years. “Not only do you learn different styles, but training, attitudes, the whole thing is an experience.”

Few realized that before Gamburyan entered the Ultimate Fighter show he had already fought several elite fighters including Sean Sherk in a mini-marathon fight that ended in a decision loss seven years ago.

“It was 18 (straight) minutes we fought,” Gamburyan remembers of their meeting that took place in 2001. “I fought Sean Sherk when I was about 18, but I did pretty good and went the distance with him. We can do it again hopefully.”

Gamburyan, his cousin Parisyan and Mitichyan, are poised and anxious to fight on the same fight card next month.

Parisyan says he knows he fights with a certain intensity and anger, but hopes everyone understands. His next opponent is dangerous Thiago “Pitbull” Alves (18-4).

“Armenians like to stick together,” says Parisyan. “There’s only about 8 million of us in the whole world.”

Mitichyan and Gamburyan both agree with their fellow countryman about wanting to showcase their fighting skills.

“Hopefully we can make history and go 3-0,” chimes Gamburyan (7-2) who is fighting Jeff Cox. “I don’t know what the problem is but people underestimate us.”

The three California Armenians may want to include one other fighter in their history-making effort next month. Kenny Florian is part Peruvian and Armenian.

You can’t sleep on those Armenians. They like to fight.

This past Christmas I gave a digital photo frame as gifts to my parents. I think this was the best things they received.

This digital picture frame was loaded full of pictures of their grandchildren over the past year. I see my mom going thru the digital frame she would a conventional photo album. The cool thing is that the pictures change randomly and all day long so every time you walk passed it the chances are you will see a new picture. Being that my parents are senior citizens, I thought this technology may be a little challenging for them, but I was wrong. The digital photo frames are very easy to use. You simply turn it on or off and there are buttons to manually go forward or back and pause. In addition, there is a wide array of sizes you can choose from ranging from smaller 7 inch frames up to large 15 inch frames. There are also all kinds of designs and colors available to choose from. You can probabbly find anything to match whatever it is you are looking for….from classic wood finishes to more modern looking frames. In other words, you can find any style for any taste and any age!!! Im telling you, you can not go wrong with this. Either as a gift or something for you to use.

I think the cool part is that because you can store so many photos on the digital frame, you can actually be reminded of the good times you have had and remember things, events and people that made you feel good.

I liked the digital frames so much that I ended up buying 5 more. Have one at the house, one at the office and three more available to give out as last minute type of gifts.

I have often wondered how people that have bad credit loans get out of the mess they are in….Its a catch 22 situation in that they can not get more credit, but without it they are very hard pressed to get out of the credit debt they are in. In addition to this, creditors or credit card companies seem to prey on these types of people and offer them credit products that sound good and have a low interest for a very short time and kick in with high interest at a later time.

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I found a site where you can now play instant bingo directly in your browser. There’s no need to download any software. It’s free, easy, and you can start playing immediately.  I tried it and its a lot of fun.  By playing online bingo, you get to meet a lot of new and interesting people and at the same time have a relaxing activity where you don’t have to use your brain (too much anyway).

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OMG….How many times have you been asked for pc help with a friend’s or family member’s computer? I cant begin to tell you how frustrating that becomes. Once you help them, you somehow become their exclusive IT Support!!!!

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Found a website where I can backup and store my local files for safekeeping. I have tons and tons of personal files which include, pictures, family videos, mp3’s, tax documents, etc.. it was becoming a pain to back them up on DVD’s and even external hard drives. The biggest problems I was dealing with was cataloging the files and accessing them when I needed to. Having them on other types of media prevented me from getting to them quickly because I had to go find the right one and look thru it to find what I needed. Now, with BT, I upload them to their website and can access them ANYTIME and from ANY PC.
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Check them out at BT digital vault service

Tags: DigitalVault, Online file backup

In designing and developing webpages, I am often asked to incorporate email marketing tools within the sites I build.   Well, I found a site that offer these types of tools& features and even more….

iContact is the best option out there for anyone who wants to send out email newsletters. They have great inbox deliverability, an extremely easy to use interface, great prices that start at $9.95 per month, lots of templates, and also include surveying, autoresponder, and blogging capability from the same application at no additional charge.

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This is definitely the tool that will make your life easier and make you look like a champ in the eyes of your clients.

I found the perfect site to get gifts for for co-workers and people  I know.  I can get all kinds of laptop skins from SkinIt.com.

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Their site is really easy to navigate and very user friendly.   And, one of the best things is that they are always adding new designs.  Definitely something to bookmark.

More and more I am asked to create sites that accommodate shopping cart technology and ecommerce software.  I have gotten tired of creating these features from scratch and incorporating them into what I build.  So, after some searching, I was able to find a company that offer hosted chopping cart software.  This means all I have to do is integrate their technology into the sites that I create.  This makes my job easier and faster, which means I can collect faster.  The tools provided by this hosted shopping cart software vendor are intuitive yet powerful.  They allow for a multiplicity of options and are feature rich.  They offer great customer support and are able to answer any and all questions you may have and they provide the total solution.

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A few years back, some buddies and I created an investment company and started investing in real estate in the UK.  We started out with one property and had one single mortgage to worry about.  Since then we have re-invested in the real estate and now have 3 mortgages to deal with.  I hadn’t realized that having a UK mortgage would be just as beneficial as having a mortgage in the states in terms of tax purposes.

I mean investing in real estate is just as easy in the UK as it is here in the states…all we did was get mortgage quotes, compared them and went with the best mortgage deals.

It really is true that real estate investing is the same everywhere…