Breaking News: Karo Parisyan Pulls Out of UFC 106 Bout, Dana White says Karo is Banned

Dana White breaks the news with this post from his Twitter account.

Karo Parisyan has f@#$ed over the UFC, the fans and his opponent again!!! He will not be fighting saturday or ever again in the UFC!!

Josh Gross confirms the news as well.

Karo Parisyan has once again pulled out of a bout at the last minute leaving the UFC with virtually no time to find a replacement opponent for Dustin Hazelett.  The good news for Hazelett is that Dana White has confirmed that he will be paid both his win and show money, but, of course, he'll lose out on his sponsorship money.   

At this time the reason for Parisyan's withdrawal is unknown.  Parisyan's battles with anxiety and panic attacks are well-documented but WKR will refrain from drawing any early conclusions until more information is released. 

Stay tuned to WKR as we'll keep you updated to this breaking story as more information comes out. 

[Update: Note by Zak Woods, 11/19/09 4:30 PM EST ]

One early report stated that Karo was unable to get a license to fight in Las Vegas, as he as yet to pay his $32,000 fine for the positive drug test following UFC 94. However MMA Junkie tweeted that, "Keith Kizer said Karo was, in fact, licensed and they had worked out a deal to have him pay fine out of UFC 106 purse."

[Update #2: Note by Zak Woods, 11/19/09 5:13 PM EST ]

MMA Weekly has a quote from Karo,

"Everything is over bro. I'm just going to go home. Everything is (expletive) up. I've got to think about what I'm going to do for my career," added 27-year old Parisyan. "I've got to think about what I want to do as far as fighting goes."

MMA Junkie has Dustin Hazelett's response to the situation,

"They said I'll get my show and win money, which is just really cool of them," Hazelett said. "They didn't have to do that, pay the win money too. But they did, and it's great."

...

"He had disrespected me and the art of jiu-jitsu by saying he can eat jiu-jitsu guys for breakfast," Hazelett said. "I was looking forward to standing up and defending my art. It really sucks this happened, especially after all the things he said. And then he just pulls out of the fight."

Hazelett said his corner men, friends and family are either in Vegas or en route and that he "plans to make the most of the weekend" despite the late cancellation of his fight. A self-described MMA junkie, he'll now likely catch UFC 106 as a fan and look to get on a future card soon.

"I was feeling really good and ready to fight," he said. "But everything happens for a reason."

Areil Helwani updates the pay-per view line-up,

Borsari says Baroni-Amir will now open show and Volkmann-Thiago will replace Karo-Hazelett as swing bout on PPV.

[Update #3: Note by Zak Woods, 11/19/09 9:09 PM EST ]

Josh Gross passes along this tweet, 

Karo Parisyan denies abuse of painkillers is the reason for not fighting. "Hell no, no addiction," he said via text. "It's anxiety."

FiveOunceofPain talks to a friend of Parisyan's who says, "Karo’s had some problems with an addiction to pain medicine due to an injury he sustained a few years ago." Take this with a grain of salt. 

The Savage Science breaks down the efficacy of Dana White's angry tweet.