Josh Connor
In less than 24 hours, Georgi “Insane” Karakhanyan (24-4-1) will make his long anticipated return to fight inside the Bellator cage before the end of 2015. It’s a promise Georgi made to himself after a torn ACL knocked him out of his Bellator 138 featherweight title fight against Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (24-3). Instead of unleashing a guillotine submission victory on “Pitbull” Freire that night in June to claim featherweight gold, Georgi instead sat drinking Coronas in his home as he could only watch as another man, Daniel “The Weasel” Weichel (35-9), fought in his stead. Tonight however, Karakhanyan feels things will be different. As hundreds of thousands of viewers on Spike TV tune in across America, the culmination of a seemingly endless journey of pain, determination, and redemption will play out for Karakhanyan. One can’t help but notice there is a strange irony that the very fighter involved at the start of this painful journey, Daniel Weichel, could also signify the end of it for Karakhanyan with a victory.
For Karakhanyan, the journey has been long and fraught full of pain and mental toughness. Where most pro athletes coming off such a debilitating ACL injury seek medication to get through the pain and recovery, this wasn’t the case for Karakhanyan. After two days of pain killers post-surgery, he said no more and challenged himself in a way fitting of his “Insane” fight moniker:
"The pain level if you describe it from 1 to 10, it was like a 20. I never went through pain like that in my life. It was all in my head. I wanted to take full advantage of all the pain. If I’m going to go through the pain, I’m going to go through 100% pain. The first few weeks of the rehab was probably the worst. Its kind of like when you get a tattoo. At first it hurts, but then you get into a zone where like you don’t give a shit. After that, I didn’t care. I just kept sticking with the rehab and told myself I have to fight end of this year no matter what."
The road to recovery for Karakhanyan wasn’t easy, and he attributes much of his mental toughness used to cope to his tough upbringing in Russia as a youth. Throughout the road to recovery, Karakhanyan received inspiration from the likes of American World Cup alpine skier Linsey Vonn and also NFL star running back Adrian Peterson. Phone calls with fellow Bellator fighter King Mo Lawal for advice also transpired and fed Karakhanyan’s confidence and drive to prove he was the kind of fighter who could make it back. Not before long, despite the pain and continual therapy, Karakhanyan began achieving recovery benchmarks:
"I started doing mitts a month after the surgery. Two months into it, I was drilling jiu jitsu and all my favorite submissions. When you get injured like that, for me, it was [important] to not forget the muscle memory. I was drilling a lot. Four months into it, I was doing a lot of mitt work. A lot of wrestling drills. Five, Six months I was good. I was training really good and still [am] working on my rehab program ‘till this day. I take about an hour or 45 minutes to warm up and everything before I get onto the mat. I feel like I am 100% ready."
As for his opponent tonight in Daniel Weichel, Karakhanyan relishes the opportunity to test himself to his fullest against a top-flight, dangerous opponent:
"I feel like [Weichel] is a well-rounded fighter. He has no weaknesses, and that is what I am looking for. Going against someone who has no weaknesses; figuring out the weaknesses once the fight starts. That’s what separates a good fighter from a great fighter. I feel like I see myself dominating anywhere, and come fight night I am looking for an exciting fight for everybody and the fans." One thing is for certain, when the bout gets underway Karakhanyan is out for blood, at least temporarily that is: "When the door closes, we are going to try to kill each other and then hopefully after the fight I will buy [Weichel] a few beers and we will be cool." With a victory, Karakhanyan isn’t shy about what he wants next and where he feels Bellator is heading in 2016: "I win this fight impressively I would like to fight for the belt." "I would like Bellator to sign some known UFC fighters. It would kind of prove Bellator is tough. I don’t feel like Bellator fighters get enough respect. We have a lot of good champions and good fighters that will destroy any UFC fighters. Hopefully, they sign a few UFC fighters so we can kill them all." "As far as comparing them [Bellator and WSOF], I feel like Bellator is on a different level. Bellator is getting very close to even beating UFC. I think 2016 is going to be the year of Bellator. Scott Coker is going to take Bellator to a different level. He is already doing that."
In the end, Karakhanyan knows tonight in the cage he just needs to trust himself and not think too much. He foresees another ten years of fighting in his future and a future re-match with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire certainly seems to be on the radar given the bad blood between the two fighters as evident in their Bellator 141 poster signing dustup where the two fighters were prepared to come to blows.
"Patricio [Freire], I don’t know. He probably has little man syndrome so I don’t really know what’s up with him. He just tries to be tough. I guess he tries to punk you, but I’m no Will Brooks. I’m not going to let him jump me or anything. I just didn’t let him talk to me the way he was talking to me, and I was actually willing to fight with him right there, but they had to separate us. Thank you for your time Georgi. Also, thank you to Bellator’s CJ Tuttle. |
Proudly Sponsored By:
If you would like to sponsor the site or write with us, email: [email protected]
Archives
March 2016
|