Georgi Karakhanyan will make his first World Series of Fighting featherweight title defense when he meets Rick Glenn on the main card of World Series of Fighting 10 on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
When Karakhanyan (23-3-1) won the inaugural featherweight title in December, he was initially scheduled to face Glenn. However, an injury pulled Glenn out of the fight and Karakhanyan ended up submitting previously unbeaten Lance Palmer to become the champion.
The victory over Palmer was his ninth straight victory and it was his second victory to take place into the World Series of Fighting cage. Both of his wins in the promotion have come by submission and five of his nine wins in his current winning streak have come by submission.
Glenn (14-2) is also on an impressive unbeaten streak as he is 11-0-1 in his last twelve fights and he is also 2-0 in the World Series of Fighting. With this being the second time that Karakhanyan has been scheduled to face Glenn, he is very aware of how good of a fighter he is but he has a lot of confident heading into this fight.
“He deserves the title shot,” Karakhanyan said. “He’s 2-0 in the World Series of Fighting. He’s long and lanky with a style like Erik Koch and Anthony Pettis. He has a great coach – Duke Roufus, whom I respect. My last two World Series of Fighting opponents, Waylon Lowe and Lance Palmer, were very tough and so is Rick Glenn. I don’t underestimate him but I’m coming into this fight with lots of confidence.”
One of the potential advantages that Glenn may have in this fight is his height. He is 6 feet tall, while Karakhanyan is 5’8. With Glenn having a height advantage in this fight, Karakhanyan brought in several tall fighters to help him prepare for this aspect in the fight.
”I’m just sparring with a lot of tall southpaws,” Karakhanyan explained. “This will be my fourth southpaw opponent and I think I’m a very bad match-up for southpaws because of my roundhouse kicks. I’m unbeaten versus southpaws (3-0). I’m going to stay on my game and come up with new things. You know, I don’t want to be a boring fighter; I want to put on an exciting show for the fans. I’ve put an extreme amount of time in this sport and I haven’t fought the way that I expect myself to fight. I keep going to the gym every day to become the fighter I’ve always visualized. I haven’t fought the way I want to fight.”
Karakhanyan title defense against Glenn will be another opportunity to prove that he is one of the best featherweight fighters in the world. In the current Fight Matrix rankings, he is listed as the number fifteenth featherweight. However, he believes that he is definitely a current top ten featherweight in the world.
“For sure Top 10, even Top 5,” said Karakhanyan. “I’ve faced tougher opponents during my first two fights in World Series of Fighting than some guys in other organizations. I’m willing to take chances and I’m willing to fight all of the top guys to climb up the ladder.”