Georgi Karakhanyan hasn't had the best go of things since his January 2015 win over Bubba Jenkins. He's looking to take that frustration out on Bubba Jenkins.
Karakhanyan was fresh off of losing his World Series of Fighting Championship during the aforementioned Bellator 132 bout against Jenkins. Early in the fight, Jenkins went for a takedown and got stuck in a tight guillotine, and eventually passed out. Things looked bright for Karakhanyan, but the good times didn't last.
Georgi wouldn't fight again for 11 months, and subsequently dropped two unanimous decision victories. That's why many were surprised Karakhanyan was booked to face Jenkins in a rematch at Bellator 160. After all, Jenkins had won three fights in a row. Karakhanyan doesn't think their upcoming bout will play out much different than the first.
"He's probably going to try to shoot on me again, but probably in the later rounds. He says he wants to stand with me, but we'll see. He's not going to be able to stop me, " Karakhanyan told Fightful. "I can't wait to torture him all three rounds. He's saying in interviews I'm washed up. You want to go in the cage with a clear mind, so you can't let anything like that bother you, or else you'll be fighting emotionally."
While Karakhanyan says that he doesn't want to participate in an emotionally charged fight, the former WSOF Champion's later comments seemed to indicate otherwise. Karakhanyan put Jenkins to sleep in their first fight, but this time, he claims he'll have no regard for Jenkins' safety.
"If he puts his neck there, the only difference this time will be that I won't let the ref know he's out. I really wanna kill him," Karakhanyan said.
Fightful.com also spoke to Bubba Jenkins, who didn't seem fazed by the aggressive comments from Karakhanyan.
"I think that's cute," Jenkins laughed. "I think he believes he's going to get that guillotine again.I think he believes that I'm the same fighter. I don't think I'll agree with much of anything that he says. Any loss from childhood to my professional career, I want to avenge. I didn't ask for this fight. Being on a three-fight winning streak, I wanted something to put me into title contention."
While Jenkins remained calm speaking of a man who claimed to want to put him to sleep (and possibly take his life), he's hoping to cause Karakhanyan to be the subject of a "crying Jordan" at the very least.
"I have no problem taking a detour to fight Georgi since he got the victory last time. He's coming off two losses, which makes him more of a desperate. I look forward to putting some (memes) out with the way I beat him," said Jenkins.
Jenkins and Karakhanyan square off this Friday at Bellator 160 on Spike TV. The show is headlined by former UFC champion Ben Henderson taking on former Bellator champion Patricio "Pitbull" Freire.
