Shawn Yacoubian vs. Joe Sarkissian rematch

The Guatemala Fight went well against Ben Yelle but I unfotunately lost by decision. A fighter from my gym , Travis Garlitz, was supposed to fight Joe Sarkissian on November 29, 2007 at the San Manuel Casino but wont be able to make it due to personal reasons. As soon as I heard this, I stepped up to the plate; ever since our No Contest fight in 2003 Joe had been requesting for a rematch but things hadnt worked out in his favor till now. The fight will be 4 rounds of full muay thai rules for the Young Guns Title Belt. Other fighters on the show will include Danny Steele vs. Hector Pena.

I came out with little to no injuries in Guatemala so this upcoming show will be a good one to watch. Tickets are available through Ticket Master or directly through the casino the day of the venue. I recommend getting tickets ahead of time unless you want to wait for the casino to print them out when you get there which takes an awful long time considering the addition of waiting in line. Since I am taking the fight on short notice my picture wont be on the poster but here it is anyway:

Well, It’s been a wonderful year and I’m looking forward to 2003 where I will pretty much have my hands full with all these fights. I have been training consistently and feel great at this point.

I have been matched up with Jason Fenton from Canada for a 5 round Muay Thai fight. It will be televised LIVE on INDEMAND pay-per-view at 10 PM eastern time / 7 PM pacific time. I urge everyone to show their support, which is always appreciated, and buy tickets through my gym, House Of Champions 818-996-7180 or HONDA ONLY 818-768-6608.

My training at this time is pretty much under wrap, so I can’t mention much about it; anyways, I’m more of a person who DOES rather then TALKS ABOUT DOING

I had some revisions done to the sight which is now being updated regularly. There will be NEWS posted on the UPCOMING EVENTS page and a new article under TRAINERS ANALYSIS followed by an interview with one of my trainers Peter Cunningham to start off the new year.

I’d like to thank my family, fans and sponsors of 2002 as well as everyone who has helped me get this far; I now am focused on 2003 and my next event ………

but before I put an end to this journal entry I would like to share a poem with you that I stumbled on ………..

IF YOU THINK YOU ARE BEATEN, YOU ARE;
IF YOU THINK YOU DARE NOT, YOU DON’T;
IF YOU’D LIKE TO WIN, BUT THINK YOU CANT,
ITS ALMOST A CINCH YOU WONT,
IF YOU THINK YOU’LL LOOSE, YOU’RE LOST,
FOR OUT THERE IN THE WORLD WE FIND SUCESS
BEGINS WITH A FELLOWS WILL,
ITS ALL IN THE STATE OF MIND.
LIFE’S BATTLES DON’T ALWAYS GO
TO THE STRONGER OR FASTEST MAN;
BUT SOONER OR LATER THE MAN WHO WINS
IS THE MAN WHO THINKS HE CAN.

Anynomous ………

HAPPY NEW YEAR …………… and Ill see you at the fights !!!!

Shawn

Well, no sense in keeping you all waiting any longer about what I have up my sleeve. I have mentioned in previous journal entries that my camp and I were “putting something together”. Well the details are all falling into place and it time to start sharing the exciting news with you all.

OK, so I will start with the bad news. I will not be fighting at the K-1 show in Las Vegas in February of 2003. The good news part of this is that I am already booked for the first 6 months of 2003.

The World Championship Kickboxing

This will be a series of fights starting January 24, 2003 (location TBA) and will continue through June. These fights will involve 8 of the best Light Welterweight division fighters battling it out to determine who is the best upcoming “YOUNG GUN” in the Muay Thai scene today.

The basic format for these fights will be elimination style with each of us fighting our seven opponents until only the the 2 best fighters are left standing. All fights will be 5, 3 minute rounds with a 2 minute rest period, allowing knees to the body and head, with the exception of the 2nd show in Thailand and the 5th and final show in Las Vegas. The winner of the last fight will take home the grand prize of $15 ,000.00.

This may not seem like a lot fo 6 months worth of fighting but it will add a lot to my resume and provide a lot of great exposure for my career.

All fights will be aired live on INDEMAND PAY-PER-VEIW check them out at http://web.archive.org/web/20070219155808/http://www.indemand.com/for availability and times for your area. The promoter is Dennis Warner with INSYNC productions. All info, as well as locations and show times for the tournement fights can be found at http://web.archive.org/web/20070219155808/http://www.blackbelt.tv/

I will also be keeping all information on the fight locations and times and when they will air on INDEMAND PAY-PER-VEIW on my web site on the “upcoming fights” page. Tickets for the shows will be available through my web site as well. Check back regularly for the latest news on this exciting Tournament.

On a different note, I went to another of Denis Warners pay-per-veiw shows , November 15, 2002 and got to see some great fights.

Malipet, my previous Thai instructor who helped me get ready for the K-1 Bellagio fight, won a unanimous decision in his fight and was handed the IKKC Middleweight Tittle. He did this after taking the fight on very short notice.

At the fight I ran into a friend mine, a man I respect dearly, Grandmaster Frederick Peterson, the timekeeper of major kickboxing events. I was grateful to recieve from him an autographed copy of SOKE PRODUCTIONS, instructional self defense booklet complete with the video tapes, before they hit the market. I wish him all the best.

I would like to talk a bit about the new movie ARARAT by Atom Egoyan. I liked this movie a lot and it is the first major motion picture to tell the story of the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE. The producer Atom Egoyan, in my opinion is truly a genius with a unique style of laying out the scenes of a film. His use of vivid symbolism in telling a difficult story makes this a movie I would recommend that everyone see at least once. Atom Egoyan is a Armenian Canadian filmmaker. You can learn more about him and his movies at his web site http://web.archive.org/web/20070219155808/http://www.egofilmarts.com/

I would like to wish my friend and fellow fighter, Bryce Papenbrook, luck on his amateur debut at the age of 16. He will be fighting Friday 6, 2003 at the Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California. I would like to thank the shows promoter VUT for hooking me up with ringside seats, a great start to the evening, for my girlfriends birthday.

From the time I first heard about the tournament opportunity, I have been training consistently with my chief trainer Rick O’Kane. I am also working with 2 other trainers I will not mention at this time. I also have 100% support from my camp and particularly from Peter Cunningham. All I have to say is 3-D baby …..

I will be posting more information in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, prepare to be astonished as a NEW RISING STAR WILL ENTER THE RING ON JANUARY 24, 2003.

Shawn

Another day @ the gym (left to right - Peter Cunningham, Everton Davis, Shawn Yacoubian & Gary Wheeler 11-25-02)

Group Shot (left to right - Gary Wheeler, Peter Cunningham, Jerry V., Danny Steele, Shawn Yacoubian & Everton Davis) 11-25-02

My camp and I have decided to hold off on booking any fights for the next couple months. This is because we didn’t think I was in shape to accept the last two fights we were offered.. I will however start the new year of 2003 with a good match up yet to be announced. I am planning to fight at least seven times in 2003.

This year has been a great year for me overall. I did not have as many fights as had anticipated but I was going through so much to settle down with promoters, trainers and managers. I ended up having five fights, all wins with three of them coming by way of knockout.

I have been training with Rick O’ Kane two to four times a week to keep the art fresh in my mind planning to start getting back into shape by mid next month. I did however get to play the part of a boxer in a TV show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, thanks to my trainer Pete Cunningham, who was the star of the episode . I would like to thank all cast and crew for their support. The show will be aired this November. For further info go to their website >>>>> http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi/sneakpeek.html.

I made it to both of my friend fights last month. Unfortunately Gus Lopez lost by split decision. Danny Steele, who fought at another of Scott Coker’s events in San Jose, also lost, by a unanimous decision against new champion James Cook. As always Scott puts on a first class show and the San Jose Civic Center is a great venue. I look forward to fighting there in 2003. On a better note, I was invited as a guest to a local Mixed Martial Arts gym named HYKATCHDO. Mihran Aghvinian, who came to the US from Germany and who is of Armenian descent runs this gym. I ended up teaching an hour and a half class to show the students some of MY stand-up techniques :). I was very impressed overall by the gym’s hospitality and gratitude. . For more information about this gym go to www.hyekatchdo.com

I have made plans to add more pictures to the site as well as a short promo to show some clips of a few fights. I am also going to add a mailing list for those of you who want to be informed of news, updated journal entries as well as FIGHTS. I have added a tell-a-friend link to the site on the CONTACT page for any of you to email your friends a link to my website.

On a different note, the next two months I will pretty much be working at finishing up some projects I have at work at www.hondaonly.net. Yes, you heard me ………… I do have another job.

ATTENTION PLEASE:……. If anyone knows members of SYSTEM OF A DOWN please ask them to contact me, I was talking to Serj’s brother Sevag about a few “things” but lost contact. If anyone out there can help me get in touch with them again I would be very grateful……. thanks.

I AM NOW READY FOR SCHEDULING OF FIGHTS FOR NEXT YEAR >>>>>>>> AND OPEN TO SPONSORHIP OPPORTUNITIES …….
CONTACT MARK PARRA AT 818-996-7180.

p.s. >>>> check out www.ionicmusic.com , they will be performing at the ROXY on Halloween night.

Happy Halloween,

Shawn

After my last fight at the K-1 World Grand Prix Elimination in Las Vegas, I took a couple of weeks off to recover. As you can imagine you come away from these fights bruised and sore. I have, however been staying active and keeping in shape.

I am currently working with Danny Steele, 7-time world champion, as his exclusive sparring partner, for his fight coming up this weekend. He will be fighting on Saturday, September 28, 2002 at the “Strikeforce” show in San Jose California. I will be working in the corner for Danny at that show as well.

On September 27 I will be attending an amateur show at the Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood in LA to support and work the corner of one of my gym’s fighters too. As for upcoming fights I do have a few to choose from and will post information in the “Upcoming Events as soon as the decisions are made.

In the next few weeks or so I plan to spar some more with the Ruelas brothers for a good Boxing workout and work on my knee defenses with …..………. / come on now, I can not reveal all of my training sources.

Well that’s about all the news for now, but check back soon to see what’s new and when my next fight will be.
Shawn

Sparring @ House of Champions 4-30-2002 (left to right - Gus Lopez, Danny Steele, Shawn Yacoubian, Rick O' Kane, Gary Wheeler & Bryce Papenbrook)

I’d like to start off by thanking  those of you who supported me by showing up at the K-1 Bellagio event and the ones who couldn’t make it but called anyway to wish me luck (you know who you are). I would also like to thank everyone who helped prepare me for the fight; Rick O’Kane (trainer), Peter Cunningham (trainer) .., Mark Parra (manager), Bob Papenbrook (cutman) and everone else who put in work.

I was overwhelmed on how many people bought tickets through me and how many showed up last minute and bought tikets at the event, last I checked the count was 110 people.

I cant go further in my journal entry without apologizing to the promoter Scott Coker for reasons he knows about.

With that out of the way I must say the weekend of K-1 was wonderful but oh so long.

I trained my ass off for this event to be able to shine once more ,but If you ask me, I did’nt shine bright enough. I always have high expectations. I always would like to put on a great show. A knockout victory is great, but that is something I dont go for, it just happens. The day of August 17th I had not warmed up as long as I wanted to and went out a bit stiff which was in favor of my opponent.

The fight itself went by so quickly. I knew I won because I outscored Marco by outpunching and outkneeing him; best of all I walked out of the ring with only a couple little bruises.

I have to say Rick’s training techniques and conditionong methods have settled my thoughts of needing 3 months to heal after a fight. I now heal in about 2 weeks unless I blocked alot of kicks with my shins. Overall, I think my opponent was ………..well,tall. I’ve never even sparred people his height ( 5′11) He seemed an awkward fighter, but he had some tricks up his sleeve.

I dont know as of now when and where my next fight will take place; I will keep you updated ………………….

Shawn

Running @ Griffith Park with Rick O' Kane & Bryce Papenbrook (4-28-02)

It has been a long and sometimes tedious road to the where I am now and to be in the shape that I am in. I have been preparing for my August 17th K-1 Semi Finals fight at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

I had started training for this fight a little over two months ago. Because of the cut on my eyebrow, that I got in the Del Mar Fairgrounds fight, I had to wait a couple weeks after training started to be able to do any sparring. While the cut was healing I focused on other aspects of my training..

I am confident that all of the training has me in the best shape of my career and I believe that this fight has the possibility of becoming, once again, the best fight of the night. I am looking forward to using the skills that I have continued to develop, to show the audience the kind of fighter I have become. I will show that I have a full arsenal of tricks as well as power combo’s that will make this fight the most exciting fight of the night.

///////////////////////////////// enough talk ……. let the games begin ………..

Shawn

K-1 Grand Prix Semi Finals Poster August 17, 2002