Karo Parisyan off UFC 106 card, Dana pitches a fit
By Jim Murphy November 19th, 2009Karo Parisyan has pulled out of Saturday’s UFC 106 match against Dustin Hazlett. No official reason has been given yet, but Parisyan has suffered from panic attacks in the past as well as pain killer addiction. There’s been some speculation that this current setback is due to his bout with painkiller addiction. Other reports suggest that he didn’t have the money to pay his fine from a previous suspension, and as a result couldn’t get a license to fight. As always, Dana White was quick to respond:
“Karo Parisyan has f*cked over the UFC, the fans and his opponent again!!! He will not be fighting Saturday or ever again in the UFC!!”
Whether the real reason for his withdrawal is his painkiller issues, panic attack issues, or his financial problems–or most likely some combination of the three–its evident that Karo Parisyan is a person with serious problems that go well beyond his career as a fighter. While we can understand Dana being upset at the loss of another PPV event at the last minute with so many of his fighters lately suffering from injury or illness, his response is contemptible. Consider Brett Favre’s well documented bout with painkillers. We’re not saying that Karo is of the same stature in his sport as Favre is in his, but we’re talking reaction of management to a similar problem. What if then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue had responded to Favre’s bout with painkiller addiction in a similar manner:
“Brett Favre has f*cked over the NFL, the fans and his opponents again!!! He will not be playing quarterback Sunday or ever again in the NFL!!”
If Dana White wants to swear like a junior high school student and put the buyrate of a single PPV over the psychological well being of a fighter, that’s his business. For him to publicly react in such a callous, childish and insensitive manner is about all you need to know about why the UFC is having problems lately growing beyond its niche audience of 500,000 buys per PPV unless some big mainstream crossover curiosity like Brock Lensar is on the card. It’s why mainstream sports media treats MMA with far less seriousness than it deserves. Even Vince McMahon has behaved in a more forthright and compassionate manner when faced with similar situations, at least in public. Granted, he did so under some degree of duress after a number of ugly situations (particularly the Chris Benoit murder/suicide and aftermath) but he’s aware that saying the right things in public is good for business. The message that Dana’s reaction sends is clear–Karo Parisyan isn’t a big enough star for them to treat with kid gloves like Rampage or Lesnar, so we’ll cut him loose, insult him and publicly bury him. Who cares about his obvious serious psychological and emotional issues?
Sometimes covering MMA is like covering pro wrestling, only sleazier. There’s plenty of the usual overgrown adolescents who think that Dana can do no wrong already writing insulting articles and comments about Parisyan elsewhere and will no doubt do so here as well. I have no issue about the UFC not wanting to use Parisyan in the future and, frankly, until he gets a grip on his problems he has no business fighting in the first place. He’s dealing with a combination of issues in panic attacks and painkiller addiction that are certainly not conducive to a fighting career, but more significantly not conducive to a viable life. People die with great regularity from painkiller addiction and regardless of what Dana thinks about Parisyan personally, to react in such a manner is a textbook example of kicking a man when he’s down. It’s not only an embarrassment to the sport, the fighters and those of us who care about it but its an anathema to how any decent human being would react to the situation.
Creating an environment where fighters think they have to ignore or hide serious psychological, emotional or mental issues lest they cross Dana and lose their livelihood is a bad precedent and not much different than the one that has existed in pro wrestling for years. That’s why pro wrestling has such a well documented rate of chemical addiction and corresponding body count, and certainly not something that MMA would even want to risk emulating. Whether they’re a huge superstar like Brock Lesnar, an aspiring young fighter or a veteran who has suffered ups and downs like Parisyan the health, well being and safety of the fighters needs to be made the first, second and third priorities above everything else.
I’m not saying that Dana White is a bad person, nor would I make that judgment based on an individual incident. I’ve read many accounts that he is a complex and at times asymmetrical person, who is capable of extreme generosity and compassion as well as tirades like this. Still, there are plenty of people that have no problems making snap judgments of a person and this reflects very poorly on a sport that all of us–from Dana on down–have had to defend from mischaracterization and baseless attack at one point or another. This very well could be a case where Dana engaged his mouth before his brain–a problem that he’s repeatedly admitted to having as do many people, myself included–and will have a more measured and appropriate response based on reflection.
The problem is that when you’re in a high profile position, you’ll never get as much ‘run’ dealing with your ‘measured response based on reflection’ as you will for your off the cuff rant. For MMA fans, here’s a classic case in point–John McCain has long ago qualified and softened his ‘human cockfighting’ stance on MMA. How often do you hear his subsequent comments relative to his original critique?
Ultimately, the issue isn’t that Karo Parisyan is an employee of Dana White who has ’screwed up’, or a fighter facing at least a couple of psychological and emotional issues significant enough that he has no business in the cage at this point. The issue is that he’s a human being facing potentially life threatening problems, and deserves a measure of compassion and support–particularly from those who understand the challenges of his chosen vocation.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Dana white needs to grow up like you said, a panic attack is no joke and Karo has some problems. The UFC should be helping him out through this process. He is only 24-25 and when Karo hits 28-30yrs he is going to be a great with all the talent he has and the UFC is going to lose out. Again though someone suffering from panic attacks and pain killers is not trying to screw the UFC over he is having personal issues and I think Dana is going to cause Karo to have more panic attacks with this news.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Dana is not Karo’s friend or doctor, and Karo has backed out before. I have no problem with the way Dana reacted - don’t forget he is running a BUSINESS.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Greg–your point is well taken but even from a business standpoint Dana’s reaction is not a good one. In fact, one of our writers is working on an article about that at this very moment. In addition to bad publicity, Dana just ‘fired’ Karo due to a mental illness that he’s suffering from. That is a violation of the Americans With Disabilities act, and potentially opens Zuffa up to state and federal legal action. Would Karo prevail in court? Maybe, maybe not. Would it be easy for Karo to find a top disability attorney to represent him and drag it through court for years, forcing Zuffa to spend a lot of time and effort defending? Most definitely. As we stated, Karo has no business fighting at this point nor do I have any issue with the UFC not wanting to use him in the future. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth once said “There’s a right way, a wrong way, and a dumbass way” to handle things. Dana chose the latter.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
He fired Karo not because of a mental illness, but because he backed out last moment - no matter what the cause. The key here is timing, had there been an ongoing dialogue, Dana himself probably would have suggested to postpone any scheduled fights for Karo while things get sorted out. I’m a law student and can assure you that case would be thrown out immediately. I agree Dana could have handled it better, I myself would have had more compassion in the same situation. Keep in mind someone writing an opinion article (Dana’s reaction being bad publicity) doesn’t make it so, and is purely subjective. I won’t be returning to speak on that topic again. I think the UFC not gaining mainstream success has much more to do with some of the slow paced, downright terrible hugging matches I’ve seen lately (Vera v Couture) than what the owner has to say - I really don’t think anyone except people who are already UFC fans even care about articles like these.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
With all due respect, the several disability attorneys I spoke to about Karo’s situation thought that he at least had a potential case. Their biggest question concerned Karo’s status as to whether he’s an employee or an independent contractor. Beyond that, obviously we don’t know what has gone on out of public view between Dana and Karo so things could be quite different from how they seem.
And you’re right–there’s a whole bunch of reasons the UFC is having trouble breaking through as a mainstream sports promotion. The matchmaking has been pretty weak recently and doesn’t look to get better with fights like Couture vs. Coleman. And, of course, injuries and illnesses to your top stars like Lesnar, Silva, etc. don’t help things.
In any case, thanks for the comment!
November 20th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Karo is employed by contract…he can sue if he breaches it…so stop the ADA talk. If Karo can stand the heat…GET OUT
November 20th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
All I’m saying is that we live in a very litiguous society. People shouldn’t be able to sue because they spill hot coffee in their lap, but it happens. The attorneys I spoke with suggested that the important thing was that he’s not an *independent* contractor. He can’t go fight for another promotion while working with the UFC. Everyone works under contract these days in a lot of different industries–I do this under contract for that matter. That fact doesn’t necessarily negate the legal protection afforded more traditonal employee/employer arrangementsm
November 21st, 2009 at 2:27 am
Karo is an amazing fighter the only fighter who utlizes throws every single person on this site doesn’t know the truth and onlu assming things! The deal was
He was suspended for 9 months the guy comes back and the commissions make a deal with him that “karo as soon as you fight pay the 32,000 and he said after my fight for sure!! That was the deal! Then LAST minute change ****ing the head of commission said your license is suspended you need to pay now.. WTF?? How can the guy pay at the last minute when he hasn’t been fighting for months???? After his fight he was going too.. Piece of **** white got all pissed cause he couldn’t do **** or argue his way with the commissions and was going to pay dustin out of his “OWN” pocket told karo I can’t do anything!! Karo was ready to FIGHT he waited too ****ing long.. for this bull****!! Dana had the ****ing money could of paid and karo would of paid him back after his fight plain and simple!!! screw dana for what he did that money was peanuts for him!! Basically they ****ing lied and said pay the 32,000 after the fight which was the deal which they could have said weeks before not at the last minute when the guy is ready to fight and telling him oh you can’t your license is suspended!! It’s pure bull****.. I think his going to fight for strikforce not sure though.. has all the talent and skills in the world!!
November 21st, 2009 at 11:37 am
Jim - you are a great writer.
Chris - learn how to write if you’re going to post in a public forum, I spent half my time trying to decipher what the heck you are talking about. I’m still not sure what you are trying to say and most of it is assumptions.
November 21st, 2009 at 12:18 pm
You guys seriously need to drop the disability crap. It is a slap in the face to compare this to someone with a serious disability. There was no lead-in to this, nothing gives us any idea that there was any warning to this. This is indeed a business, and if you can’t fight, you can’t do the job. If you think that is “discrimination” then go fight for a parapalegic’s right to be a paramedic, even though he can’t perform the required duties, because that’s the stick you’re measuring against.
November 21st, 2009 at 12:45 pm
No one is saying that Karo is in worse shape than a guy with no arms or legs, nor are we saying that this is discrimination. But there is abundant precedent for people suing for discrimination, wrongful termination and other offenses under the Americans With Disabilitys Act and other similar regulatory guidelines due to mental illness. The right lawyer gets this into the right legal venue and the UFC is at the very least forced to spend a lot of time and money trying to defend something that could have been easily avoided simply by handling this in a more forthright manner.
January 29th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
I’ve been seeing some of Parisyans fights on UFC unleashed, and I’m impressed. The guy has big time guts and slugs it out. Yeah everyone is saying it’s a business blah blah blah. Funny how it becomes personal when it involves you.