Ultimate Fighter finalist returns to cage after injury disappointment

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This article was published 24/12/2007 (6691 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last time most MMA fans saw Manny Gamburyan, the five-foot-five fighter was disconsolate after tapping out to Nate Diaz – his UFC dream thrown into disarray when he dislocated his shoulder in the June finale of Season 5 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show.

The pain was nothing new to Gamburyan, who had not fought for some three years before the Diaz bout. His shoulder has popped out three previous times, dating back to a 2003 judo tournament. It even happened during the semifinal of “The Ultimate Fighter” against Joe Lauzon in a bout Gamburyan won.

“Sometimes I can bring it back,” he says.

But not against Diaz. Gamburyan could only keep asking himself: “Why at the finale and why against Nate Diaz?” Especially after he spent three months straight, training twice a day for Diaz.

Gamburyan, 26, returns to action Saturday when he takes on Nate Mohr (8-4) on the undercard of UFC 79: Nemesis in Las Vegas.

“I promise you I will finish him.” Gamburyan (5-2) said in an interview.

In the wake of the Diaz loss, he opted for rehab over shoulder surgery after his doctor told him going under the knife would mean a year off.

“After almost three months I felt better. Powerful, strong, lifting weights, I could do pull-ups. Everything was going great. So when (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva called me and said ‘Manny, are you ready to go for next year, January or February?’, I told him right off the bat ‘How about this year? End of year?”‘

“Basically I feel good, but you never know,” he added. “I’d rather get my ass kicked than lose like that (to Diaz).”

While Diaz earned a UFC contract, Gamburyan walked away with some sour memories.

“Until I fight Nate Diaz again, it won’t get out of my head,” he said.

A rematch with Diaz is a natural. But until then, Gamburyan is likely to find his own place in the UFC. A whirling dervish in the cage, he has earned a legion of fans for his never-say-die attitude in the ring.

He says his life has changed’0 degrees since appearance on the TV show. Like many of the young fighters who spent six weeks cooped up in the Las Vegas mansion while trying to break into the UFC, he has become a celebrity of sorts.

He even has a new nickname – The Anvil – after deciding there were too many Pitbulls already.

At five-foot-five, Gamburyan is a baby when it comes to lightweights. But he is a buzzsaw.

And while he only has seven fights under his belt, he has already beaten UFC veterans Jorge Santiago and Sam Morgan. His only other loss was to former lightweight champion Sean Sherk, when Gamburyan was just’.

“Those are not easy guys that I fought,” he said. “People didn’t know about me.”

A native of Armenia who came to the U.S. in’91, Gamburyan says he had first MMA fight was a win in Mexico when he was just 15. He went on to become a junior amateur judo star before deciding he wanted to get paid for fighting

He was supposed to fight Matt Serra at UFC 44, way back in September 2003. But a facial cut derailed that bout and Gamburyan, who walks around at a little over 160 pounds, decided fighting at welterweight (170) was too tough.

His UFC dream took another blow when the organization decided to put the 155-pound lightweight class on hiatus. “The Ultimate Fighter” offered a way back after the division was restored.

“I’m really proud of myself. I worked hard to be a UFC fighter,” Gamburyan said.

Gamburyan, whose cousin is top-ranked welterweight Karo (The Heat) Parisyan, was well aware of the sacrifices cast members make on “The Ultimate Fighter,” having seen previous seasons.

Still the reality of the reality TV show was something else.

“The house sucks, let me tell you something. It plays with your head a lot. There’s nothing to do – no TV, no music, no girls, no phones. Basically it’s you and the 15 dudes with you in the house. It’s insane.”

“I don’t regret it,” he added. “but I won’t do it again, I promise you.”