FanHouse Karo Parisyan

Unlike the UFC 98 main event title match, in which anything could happen and we wouldn't really be surprised, the co-main event between longtime rivals Matt Hughes and Matt Serra has a certain level of predictability to it.

Both Hughes and Serra, after all, have been fighting for years and employing their own formulas to success.

What adds the sizzle to this one is the war of words that will finally see a winner emerge. So how will it go down? Let's take a look.

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Karo Parisyan was once among the most promising young athletes in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. But Tuesday's ruling from the Nevada State Athletic Commission is the latest sign that Parisyan will never fulfill his promise.

Karo Parisyan, who will fight Yoshiyuki Yoshida on the undercard at UFC 88, says his approach to the fight is more than just grinding out a victory:

"People ask me, 'Do you care more if you give a good show, or do you just want to win?' I just love to give a good show to the crowd," Parisyan said. "If we have no fans, we have no fighters, we have no shows, we have no sport. So I've always said I'd rather give it a good show than do a boring fight and win the fight."

I think Parisyan's fight with Yoshida is an interesting matchup because of the judo background of both fighters, and I think the winner becomes a clear Top 10 welterweight. I was at UFC 84 when Yoshida put Jon Koppenhaver to sleep with an anaconda choke, and I like Yoshida's approach, but I think Parisyan is going to win the fight Saturday night.

Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Serra at UFC 83 is the mixed martial arts welterweight fight everyone is talking about. But for fans who don't want to wait until April 19, there's a pretty good welterweight fight tonight, when Karo Parisyan takes on Thiago Alves at UFC Fight Night on Spike.

At the same time, while tonight's fight is a good one, being on the card at UFC Fight Night is a far cry from headlining a pay-per-view show. And for Parisyan, no matter how well he does against Alves tonight, he won't get a shot at the St-Pierre-Serra winner. For now anyway, Parisyan is behind Jon Fitch in the UFC welterweight pecking order. And how does he feel about that? He tells the Los Angeles Times:

"It's a touchy subject for me and there's times I want to kill someone over it," Parisyan said of his placement behind Fitch in the title waiting room. "The first thing I need now is a victory. . . . OK, Fitch is now ranked higher than me. Karo's not done. Karo will be back."

Parisyan has a victory over Serra to his credit, and he went the distance in a loss to St-Pierre, so you can't blame him for thinking he deserves to be a title contender. But he's still only 25. He'll have many more chances.