GOKOR CHIVICHYAN

© Marc Wickert

Born in the Soviet Union country of Armenia on May 10, 1963, Gokor Chivichyan was destined to become a great fighting champion. At age 5, Gokor was stronger than children his own age. His exceptional strength and excessive aggression soon caught the attention of his family and neighbours.

"I was much stronger than kids my own age, and I made a lot of older kids cry when I played with them. For everyone’s protection, people were saying I should take up a sport to use up all my energy," says Chivichyan.

Wrestling was very popular in Armenia, the country having produced some great world champions. So, at age 5, Gokor was encouraged to take up wrestling at Yerevan Dinamo Studio, after a student of the sport observed Chivichyan in one of his many street fights.

The head wrestling coach instantly recognised the enormous potential and dedication Gokor displayed, suggesting Gokor include Sambo work in his training after just one year of wrestling. Chivichyan was already training with older kids to compensate for his exceptional power.

"I was training 4 – 5 hours a day at age five. I would take my schoolbooks to the gym and do my homework there, so I didn’t have to train, go home, and travel back to the gym each night. I loved to train. And my parents couldn’t take me because they worked so hard.

"I’ll tell you a short story. It was a twenty-five minute journey by bus to the gym from my home. This guy used to drive me to the gym in his car each day. After two years, he stopped training, so I had to travel by bus. But if I’d told my parents this, they wouldn’t have let me go to wrestling, because there was nobody to take me, and they would have thought I was too young to go on the buses alone.

"So I kept the secret from my parents, travelling alone by buses. And it was wintertime: very cold. I wanted to put a coat on, but my parents would have said, ‘Why do you need a coat when you’re going in a car?’ and I was so cold. Everybody used to look at me, I was only seven, and they must have thought I had lost my parents or something. But I knew what I was doing and how to get there."

Gokor kept his secret for four years. He says when his parents finally discovered what their son was doing, it was too late to stop him because he’d already been making the journey for all those years without a problem. "After four years of freezing, my father said I should at least put a coat on if I was to keep making the trip. I was the kind of kid who could take care of himself, even at that early age."

1971 saw Gokor compete in his first tournament - the Armenian Junior National Sambo Championships – after his teacher suggested he enter the event, because Gokor had been beating all the other children at his school.

"I was so happy and I told my parents to come and watch. I was the youngest competitor in the 8-10 age division, and I defeated my opponents with ease."

In 1972, Gokor returned to compete in his second Armenian Junior National Sambo Championships. At 9 years, Chivichyan was again the youngest competitor in his division, competing against 10-12 year olds. Again Gokor won gold and the right to compete in the 1973 Soviet Junior National Sambo Championships.

Chivichyan made his unexpected debut in Judo competition during 1973 also. "I had a friend who was a Judo player, and he asked me to go and watch him fight. Another guy who was supposed to be there failed to show up, and I was his weight. So the teacher said to me, ‘Gokor, I know you’re pretty good at the wrestling and Sambo. You should fight in the Judo; there’s not too much difference in the styles.’ I told him I didn’t know the rules, but he just said he’d tell me the rules and then I could just do it."

Although Gokor had never studied Judo before, he registered for the competition and won the Armenian Junior National Judo Championship. Chivichyan then qualified for the Russian Junior National Judo and Sambo Championships. He won the Sambo championship, but came second in Judo by a close decision to the three-time Soviet National Champion.

After this loss, Chivichyan promised himself he would never lose again. "I said I’m going to start training in Judo, and next year I’m going to beat the hell out of this guy. I went home and quit the wrestling, I went to the Judo, and I started doing Judo and Sambo training. I trained so hard in Judo, nobody believed how hard I could train. My teacher would tell me I’d done enough training and that I should knock off and go home. I’d tell him I was just going to run five more times around the big stadium first, and then go home.

"The next year I went back to the Nationals and ended up fighting in the finals against the same guy. This time I beat him up real bad."

Gokor continued to win every Sambo and Judo tournament from 1974 – 1979. "I started studying boxing also in 1977. I didn’t enter any major tournaments, but I competed in some small competitions in Armenia and won. I didn’t go to the major tournaments because I didn’t have time for them as well as my Sambo and Judo."

At seventeen years of age, Chivichyan tried out for the 1980 Olympic Judo team with the Soviet Union, but the teenager was out-pointed for the position by a more experienced contender ten years his senior. Despite Chivichyan’s failure to qualify for the Soviet team, he took encouragement in discovering his older opponent only edged Gokor out of selection by one point. The older competitor went on to win Olympic gold.

In 1981 Gokor and his family moved to Los Angeles, and he spent the first year in his new homeland looking for work and a place to train. He finally met up with legendary ‘Judo’ Gene LeBell.

"Gene LeBell started teaching me, and he was happy with me because I was very strong. The first time I went to Gene LeBell’s school, he had thirty five black belts lined up for me, and I beat them one by one in less than ten minutes. Gene got a surprise and said he wanted me there.

"He asked, ‘You ever do anything without a gi?’ And I told him I’d done wrestling and this and that. Gene then asked me if I’d done grappling and I said, ‘You know what? I’ve done a lot of things, but I don’t know the world of grappling.’ Gene said, ‘Well this is the grappling I’m going to teach you. This is what you know, and this is what I’m going to add to what you know.’ Gene LeBell became my teacher after that."

Gokor went on to compete in low-purse, no-holds fights because he needed the cash. He was fighting frequently, easily defeating anyone game to challenge him. Chivichyan quickly notched up over four hundred bouts, travelling the globe, with no losses.

"Because I was still an Armenian citizen, I tried to represent the Soviet Union in Judo again in 1984. I went back to Moscow, competed in the army there and won. They sent me to the Olympic trials, but then it was announced the Soviet Union would be boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics. So I packed my bags and returned to California."

There were few chances for Gokor to compete in Sambo events whilst living in America, but he continued winning all his no-holds and judo tournaments. Leading up to1988, it appeared Gokor would finally have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.

"They gave me a special citizenship in late November 1987. They wanted me to compete for the United States in the Olympics. I was so excited and I was the number one contender, having beaten everybody in America. Then when the Olympics approached, I was told I couldn’t compete for the United States. They said I was a late citizen of the United States of America and I didn’t have enough points to compete. I said, ‘I understand, but I’ve beaten all your best guys.’ They said they were sorry, but that didn’t matter: I still didn’t have enough points."

Chivichyan had only been an American for four months, and the point system was based on a four-year period. Much to Gokor’s disappointment and frustration, he was again denied the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.

In 1993, the Ultimate Fighting Championship emerged on the scene, and many of the competitors were seeking out Gokor to prepare them for the Octagon. "By 1994, a high percentage of the UFC’s fighters were training with me. UFC promoter Art Davey wanted me to compete in the Octagon, saying, ‘Everybody I talk to is talking about you, Gokor.’ But I was making more money training the fighters for UFC, and it wouldn’t have gone over well if I’d trained fighters for the Octagon and then went and beat them up.

"I told Art Davey, ‘Listen, I’m making a lot of money from training these guys and you’re not going to be able to match it, so why should I fight and make those guys look bad?’ He said he agreed with me, but he definitely wanted me to fight. I told him to get back to me when he could come up with big money, or when he could find somebody who was unbeatable. Then I would fight and beat the guy up."

In 1997 Gokor received a call, informing him such a champion had been found. Japan’s Mr Maeda was the 1996 No-Holds-Barred World Champion and was undefeated after a career of 200 fights. Gokor was informed he would be paid good money and that no one wanted to face Mr Maeda. Gokor accept the challenge.

"Mr Maeda was supposed to be a very strong guy, and he was said to be unbeatable. I spoke to a few guys who fought with him, and they said. ‘Gokor, this guy is a very, very tough guy. He’s a striker, a grappler and everything. It’s very hard to take him down.’ I was retired at the time: just teaching others. And I had four months to get in shape.

"We eventually fought in Alabama at the WFF (World Fighting Federation) event, and I beat him in 51 seconds. I broke his arm actually. I got him in an armbar and he didn’t want to tap, so I broke his arm. It was the first time Mr Maeda had been beaten."

Gokor married Narine in 1989, and they have two sons Arthur (13) and Garry (7). Arthur is five times National Junior Judo Champion and 2000 Junior Olympic Judo Champion. Garry has won two championships and is now training for the Nationals.

Today Chivichyan is forty years old. "I’m still in medium shape. I won’t say I’m in great shape, but I’m in medium shape. I train with my students and none of them can catch me yet. I tell them, the day any of them can catch me, I’ll give them a thousand-dollar present. Anybody. I’m waiting for the day when one of them can beat me, because it will mean I’m doing my job as a teacher.

"So far none of them can beat me, so I still have the thousand dollars in my pocket. But I have a lot of good students and they’re winning everywhere. Not only Karo Parisyan (see www.knucklepit.com article): I have over four hundred students, and people are coming from all over the world to train with us at the Hayastan Academy. I have a lot of good students. Karo is one of the stars, but he is not the only star. When you walk in my studio, you see a lot of tough guys. I think one day we’re going to take the UFC in every division," says Gokor.