Issue 141

It’s difficult to be considered one of the world’s leading featherweights when you’re plying your trade outside of the world’s biggest promotion. However, Russian-born Armenian and former Tachi Palace featherweight champion Georgi Karakhanyan is doing just that, putting together a run of eight straight wins over the past two years.

When he fought former UFC lightweight Waylon Lowe at WSOF 5 in Atlantic City, many considered it to be the 28-year-old’s toughest test since he fought Joe Warren at Bellator 18. But Karakhanyan had Lowe well scouted long before the fight even begun.

“I’d seen the majority of his fights, especially the one where he fought Melvin (Guillard, UFC 114),” Karakhanyan explains. “The one fight I watched and studied was him against Nik Lentz (UFC Fight Night 24, March 2011), I think he was winning the fight until the third round when he got caught in a guillotine choke.

“I knew he was a tough guy, a tough wrestler and coming off four knockout victories I knew he was looking for the finish. However, I also knew I could beat him and make a name for myself in the process.”

And it’s exactly what Karakhanyan did, smashing kicks into Lowe’s lead leg and ducking and dodging punches from the wrestler. Karakhanyan was very much in control before Lowe decided to change things up and shoot in for a takedown, something the Armenian was well prepared for.

“I knew my stand-up was on a different level when I saw his strikes coming from a mile away,” he recalls to THFE. “As soon as I knew he wasn’t able to find the range or the timing to connect with the punches I knew he would try and go for a takedown. I was trying to time the knee or the uppercut when he went to shoot in, but he got in quick and landed right in my guillotine.”

Much like the picture-perfect guillotine choke from Josh Burkman at WSOF 3, Karakhanyan pulled guard and submitted Lowe in impressive fashion. According to the victor, he nearly gave up on the choke before he even fully went for it.

He adds: “The guillotine choke is the first submission I learned when I started fighting, I’ve always worked hard on my guillotines and after watching the fight with Nik Lentz I knew that if he gave me that sort of opening I would take it.

“In some of my past fights I had the opportunity to go for the guillotine choke, but it wasn’t really there. I knew that if it was there I was going to jump guard but if it wasn’t I was going to sprawl and try and take his back or stand back up. I was adjusting and felt it click in, so I knew I had to take the chance and jump guard. And it paid off in the end.”