'Diamond' shines bright

Chivitchian showed a varied striking offense throughout, using a barrage of right and left hooks, leg kicks and some high kicks, landing a big right and a Superman punch with his right in the first round, which also saw him initiating a lot of clinches. In the second, Scharf notched a takedown, but Chivitichian quickly stood and Scharf also took his back, but it was nullified by a standup from the ref after no action. Chivitchian landed a solid right cross after the standup and began with a flurry of rights and lefts and
later would get Scharf’s back as the round ended. In the third, Scharf had Chivitchian’s back for most of the stanza, trying to work in a rear-naked choke while also hitting Chivitchian with punches and opening up a cut across the bridge of his nose.  

“I haven’t fought for [more than] a year, it feels  good to be back,” he said. “If I stay healthy, it’s gonna be every two months [that I fight]. I’m still growing in my career. I came off “The Ultimate Fighter,” got injured, thank God I’m back.”

Mitichyan (12-3), a Sambo and judo specialist who was also a former “The Ultimate Fighter” contestant and a two-time UFC veteran, wasted no time in taking muay Thai practioner Sriyapai (12-7) to the ground, shooting in after eating a leg kick. With top position, Mitichyan dropped down some solid right hands onto Sriyapai’s head before dropping down for a leg lock and securing the eventual tapout.

“[I knew I was] gonna take him down, he knew it wasn’t going anywhere,” said Mitichyan, who submitted Dorian Price in his UFC debut in 2007 in just 23 seconds.

In boxing action, Gasparyan (14-2-5, eight knockouts) returned from a year-long layoff to dismantle De La Torre (11-17-3, one KO) for his third consecutive win. Gasparyan knocked down De La Torre twice in the opening round and then, just 13 seconds into the second frame, ended the fight with a right uppercut.

Fighting in the second bout of the night, Khashakyan was the first local to take the ring and impressed the hometown crowd that had descended upon Inglewood. Khashakyan improved to 9-1 in his amateur career, walking down Joval and using a steady stream of punches in the opening round before landing a pinpoint right high kick en route to easily taking the first round.