Karakhanyan, 37, will answer Bellator MMA’s call to arms yet again when he faces Kane Mousah in a Bellator 285 lightweight prelim on Friday at 3Arena in Dublin. The former Tachi Palace Fights and World Series of Fighting champion enters the cage on the heels of back-to-back losses. Karakhanyan last appeared at Bellator 274, where he wound up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision against Adam Piccolotti on Feb. 19. Always an offensive dynamo, he has delivered 23 of his 31 career victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission—a staggering 17 of them inside one round.
As Karakhanyan moves ever closer to his looming battle with Mousah at 155 pounds, a look at a few of the rivalries that have helped chart his course to this point:
Patricio Freire
“Pitbull” stepped over Karakhanyan on his path to superstardom when he buried the Romie Aram protégé with punches in the third round of their Season 4 featherweight tournament quarterfinal at Bellator 37 on March 19, 2011. Freire closed it out 56 seconds into Round 3. A closely contested first two rounds gave way to the decisive third at the Lucky Star Casino in Concho, Oklahoma. Freire clocked the oncoming Moscow native with two right crosses, then decked him with one of his patented left hooks. The Brazilian moved in for the kill, forced Karakhanyan to retreat into a defensive shell and prompted referee Jason Herzog to call for the stoppage with a burst of unanswered punches. Freire went on to win the tournament with victories over Wilson Reis and Daniel Straus.
Lance Palmer
Karakhanyan gave Team Alpha Male a taste of its own medicine when he submitted “The Party” with a mounted guillotine choke in the third round of their World Series of Fighting 7 main event and became the promotion’s first-ever featherweight champion on Dec. 7, 2013 at the PNE Agrodome in Vancouver, British Columbia. Palmer asked out 4:40 into Round 3. Karakhanyan attacked the four-time NCAA All-American wrestler with kicks to the legs, body and head. He absorbed a fairly severe eye poke midway through the first round, but after a brief pause in the match, he continued to walk down Palmer with punches. Palmer got his takedown game in gear in the second round, only to be met by his experienced counterpart’s hyperactive guard. Karakhanyan forced him to defend multiple armbars and a heel hook before returning to his feet. Palmer drove the Russian-born Californian to the mat off of an attempted kick in the third round, transitioned to his back and searched for the choke. Karakhanyan calmly defended, moved to a more advantageous position and caught Palmer in a scramble, locking in the guillotine for the finish.
Bubba Jenkins
The offensively potent Karakhanyan knocked out the decorated wrestler in the first round of their Bellator 160 rematch—it was contested at a 149-pound catchweight—on Aug. 26, 2016 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Jenkins, who had been choked unconscious by a guillotine from the Millennia MMA rep in January 2015, met his end 53 seconds into Round 1. Karakhanyan caught a front kick to the body from the two-time NCAA All-American inside the first minute, backed him to the fence and unloaded with an overhand right. Jenkins fell face first to the mat and was defenseless against the attack that followed. Karakhanyan then pounced with punches, forcing referee Blake Grice to intervene. He remains the only man who has beaten Jenkins twice.
Emmanuel Sanchez
The resourceful Roufusport standout outpointed Karakhanyan to a unanimous decision across three rounds in the Bellator 218 headliner on March 22, 2019 at the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. All three members of the cageside judiciary scored it the same: 29-28 for Sanchez. Karakhanyan—who lost a majority decision to Sanchez in 2017—built a quick lead with a strong first round, where he secured a takedown, maintained a dominant position for three-plus minutes and mixed in some ground-and-pound for good measure. Prosperity was short-lived, however. Sanchez made the necessary adjustments in the second and third rounds, incorporated some takedowns of his own and sprang multiple reversals on his opponent during extended exchanges on the ground.