re: Ufc 106: Tito Ortiz vs Forest Griffan

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27-year old Parisyan

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That is an old 27 years.

Am I crazy for thinking Rumble Johnson is a legit threat to GSP? Assuming, of course, that he beats Josh this weekend. Seems to have the size and speed to pull it off.

He obviously knew about this issue ahead of time. What was he thinking?

To add to that, I'm sure his purse and sponsors would have covered the $32k. Just get a loan and pay it off after the fight.

I've heard that before too. Suppossedly he tried to drop 20 pounds before weigh-in day of his last fight. Missed it by 5 pounds.

edit-thanks for the link Max

Fight goes to ground = Koscheck wins
Fight stays standing = Johnson wins

I think Koscheck-Johnson will be decided by Koscheck's strategy. It seems simple that Koscheck would takedown Johnson and win, but the recent trend has been wrestler abandoning their skill in favor of striking (see Sherk for example).

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Am I crazy for thinking Rumble Johnson is a legit threat to GSP?

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He's really the only one at 170 that has a chance IMO. We'll see how he does with Kos' wrestling this weekend and then we can all make a better judgement as to how he'll fare with GSP.

With that said, I don't think Johnson will be able to stuff Kos' takedowns and loses a decision.

LAS VEGAS—Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said Karo Parisyan was cleared to fight Dustin Hazelett at UFC 106 this Saturday.

Kizer was unaware that Parisyan had been removed from the card when contacted by MMAWeekly shortly before the pre-fight press conference for UFC 106.

“That’s news to me,” he said. “No one’s told me anything otherwise. As far as I know, he was still on the card as of this morning.”

On Tuesday afternoon, White posted a fiery message on his official Twitter account, saying, “Karo Parisyan has (expletive) over the UFC, the fans and his opponent again! He will not be fighting Saturday or ever again in the UFC!”

Shortly after, White clarified that Parisyan had withdrawn from the fight with a "laundry list of excuses" in a subsequent posting.

Moments after the initial message, Parisyan told MMAWeekly he had been removed from the card because he didn’t pay a $32,000 fine he owed to the NSAC as punishment for testing positive for banned painkillers after his UFC 94 fight with Dong Hyun Kim.

“That has nothing to do with it,” said Kizer. “He was going to pay the fine out of this purse.”

Kizer said he had reached an agreement with Parisyan to take $16,000 from his $40,000 show purse for Saturday’s fight. If Parisyan won, an additional $16,000 would be taken from his win purse, which was also $40,000.

“If he lost or had a draw, we’d get 16 out of his next fight,” said Kizer.

The executive director said he spoke with Parisyan on Monday and the fighter said he was suffering from leg pain.

“He said, ‘is there any way I could take something stronger than Tylenol?’” recalled Kizer. “I said not without our doctor saying okay.”

Parisyan has long suffered pain in his hamstring after badly tearing it in preparation for a title fight with Matt Hughes at UFC 56. The Armenian-American fighter said he took strong pain medication to deal with the injury.

Kizer asked Parisyan to have the doctor treating him for the leg injury to contact the NSAC’s doctor to see whether Parisyan could take something stronger for the pain without using a banned substance. He never heard from Parisyan’s doctor.

After hearing of White’s message, Parisyan told MMAWeekly his career is in serious jeopardy.

“Everything is over, bro,” he said. “I’m just going to go home. Everything’s (expletive) up…I’ve got to think about what I want to do for my career.”

Hazelett declined to comment on the situation until he had received official confirmation from the UFC. White later tweeted that he would pay Hazelett his show and win money.

Agreed!