INGLEWOOD, CA - JANUARY 20: Henry Corrales (blue gloves) and Georgi Karakhanyan (blue gloves) during the their Featherweight fight at Bellator 192 at The Forum on January 20, 2018 in Inglewood, California. Corrales won by unaniomus decision. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

Georgi Karakhanyan plans to ‘break’ Emmanuel Sanchez’s confidence at Bellator 218 on Friday.

Georgi Karakhanyan will be making his triumphant return to the Bellator cage on a short notice call-up when he faces former title challenger (and former foe) Emmanuel Sanchez on Friday. It’s only been a few weeks since it was announced that Karakhanyan had re-signed with the promotion he once dominated.

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Now he’s been asked to fill in last minute and face Sanchez, who he’s faced and lost to before. And while a short notice bout isn’t ideal, he’s not surprised that it would be Sanchez he’d face on his return.

“When I signed with Bellator, I expected to,” Karakhanyan told FanSided. “I was like, whoever I fight next, there’s a few guys that I lost to I would like to get [a] rematch. Sanchez was on my list and originally, I was going to fight John Macapa, so I signed that contract to fight on that same card on Bellator 218. But once I signed the contract, they called me about two days later and they’re like, ‘the main event fell apart and we want you to step in and fight Sanchez’. I think that was better news than fighting Macapa.”

While some fighters might be put off by fighting with just a few weeks notice, Karakhanyan is not your typical fighter.

“It is a short-notice fight, but I feel like me as a fighter, I train year-round,” he said. “I don’t like taking any time off. The only time off I’ve probably taken is on Sundays, but I can’t wait to go out there and just fight. I’m excited.”

The pair have met once before. They faced off at Bellator 170 in January 2017. In that meeting, it would be Sanchez who would get his hand raised after a majority decision victory but Karakhanyan is confident things will go differently this time around.

“This time around is going to be a lot different because I’ve changed a lot – and I know he’s changed a lot – any good MMA fighter should evolve every second,” Karakhanyan said. “But, I have a different conditioning coach. I’m with Sam Calavitta. I train with modern top fighters that push me and beat me up in the gym, so I just feel like this fight will go anywhere I want to take it. I just got to be patient and take my time and just not play his game.”

Karakhanyan isn’t underestimating Sanchez either and has found holes him his game that he’s hoping to exploit.

“I feel like him fighting me [and] getting that decision win over me gave him the confidence to go out there and fight all these other fighters he’s fought,” he said. “But, I think it’s time to break his confidence and his last fight with Patricio [Freire], he’s good at taking punches. I call him that Mexican brawler that keeps coming forward. He just doesn’t have nothing big to watch out for, but he has these little tiny things that he does really well, which is staying busy and that’s what judges look at. Those are the little things I have to break, and I can’t wait until March 22.”

Their last bout went to decision and he’s determined to not allow that scenario again, even if it means a knockout loss for himself.

“My prediction is a finish,” he said. “I cannot let this go to the judges because when I lose in a fight, I’d rather get finished or knocked out or whatever it is. I could go to sleep being calm but when you let it go to a judge’s decision, I feel like its way harder on you as a fighter than someone beating you up or finishing you because that person was better than you.”

Once Karakhanyan gets through this fight he has his eyes on former champion Daniel Weichel next.

“I would like to fight Weichel next,” he said. “There’s Pat Curran on my list, but right now it’s a four-fight deal with Bellator in 18 months, so hopefully I can get all those four fights out of the way in one year. And hopefully, I could fight all those guys that I just mentioned.”

Bellator 218 takes place on Friday, March 22, 2019, live from the WinStar World Casino & Resort in Thackerville, OK. Follow along with FanSided MMA for all your live results and highlights.