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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
by Brian Knapp (bknapp@sherdog.com)

The Nevada State Athletic Commission on Tuesday suspended welterweight contender Karo Parisyan for nine months, fined him $24,000 and ruled his split decision victory against Dong Hyun Kim a no decision in wake of a positive test for three banned painkillers at UFC 94 “St. Pierre vs. Penn 2” in January.

The penalties -- he will also be forced to submit to random testing during his suspension -- were levied against Parisyan at an NSAC hearing in Las Vegas. The 26-year-old judoka, who has a well-chronicled history of panic attacks, was flagged for suspected use of Hydrocodone, Hydromorphone and Oxymorphone.

Parisyan (18-5, 1 ND) eked out a split decision against the previously unbeaten Kim in one of the featured bouts at UFC 94. Had it stood, the win would have marked his first in more than a year. Despite the result of the match being overturned, Parisyan was not forced to forfeit the $40,000 win bonus he received. The NSAC instead elected to impose a 30-percent fine on the entire $80,000 purse he was awarded but warned future violators that their win bonuses would be subject to forfeiture.

Parisyan, who was not represented by legal counsel at the hearing, pleaded for leniency before the commission after he admitted his guilt.

“This is my only form of income,” Parisyan said. “If I don’t fight, I’m nothing. I’m very, very sorry. It was completely unintentional. This is embarrassing for me.”

According to Parisyan, he was put on a prescription painkiller because of a torn hamstring he suffered while training for a title fight against Matt Hughes in 2005. The injury forced him out of the UFC 56 match and has never been repaired, as evidenced by the deformed muscle visible on the back of his leg. Parisyan claims it has continued to cause him pain in the three years since.

However, prior to the Kim fight at UFC 94, Parisyan ingested two pain pills -- later identified as Percocet -- he received from a friend, who had assured him they were the same as what he had been prescribed. Evidently, they were not. His levels of Hydromorphone and Oxymorphone -- the two drugs for which he has no prescriptions -- were described as “very high.”

“I trust the guy,” Parisyan said. “He’s a friend of mine. He’s got a chronic disease. He gave me the pills and told me they were the same exact thing. That’s why I took them.”

What’s more, Parisyan failed to disclose his use of painkillers, prescribed or otherwise, on a pre-fight questionnaire. Only after the fight did he inform an NSAC inspector.

“All I was concerned about was the fight,” Parisyan said. “I hadn’t fought in a year. My mind was calm [after the fight]. When I saw the urine test, I thought, ‘Oh, my God.’ [The inspector] told me as long it wasn’t an anabolic drug that would have given me advantage or a drug like cocaine or something, I should be fine. I had my doctor fax in the prescription, and a week later, everything blew up.”

Commissioner John Bailey reacted sternly to Parisyan, both for his use of pain pills that had not been prescribed and his failure to disclose use on the questionnaire.

“[The commission has] to know what’s going on with you,” Bailey said. “You just decided to not be truthful on a pre-fight questionnaire. We can’t have fighters drifting in and out of reality.”

Still widely recognized as one of the world’s top 10 170-pound fighters, Parisyan has lost to only three men -- reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, top welterweight contender Thiago Alves and “The Ultimate Fighter” season one winner Diego Sanchez -- in the past eight years.

Parisyan Suspended Nine Months

[jlruthven84]

Good.

[integer]

They needed to included part of his 40k win bonus. Sounds like Karo started liking the pain killers too much; don't blame him though

[Bubbles]

Damn

[popsicle]

Even though the effect of painkillers on a fighters performance is contriversial, it is against the rules and justice was served. I honestly feel bad for Karo, but he made his bed and now has to sleep in it.

[willpunisher]

yah now he will be crying for begging them to let him off the hook and not suspending him.. You know you will get caught! So dont fucking do it.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Something about this one becoming a NC kinda pisses me off, since it was such a controversial split decision win and given how he failed a drug test, I think it should just be an auto DQ loss to Karo and a Kim win.

[POT-HEAD]

karo just needs to train at home using the p90x program so he can get ripped and stronger.

[SMGRIFFIN]

I think Karo got what he deserved.

We'll have to see what happens with him now. he was saying a month back that if he was suspended and fined, he wouldn't be able to carry on in MMA.

It should be interesting to see how the NSAC handles the GSP case... they were doing them both at the same time.

[AngryJohnny]

I'm still a fan of Karo, but he didn't that damn fight to begin with.