Gamburyan drops to 135-pounds, wants to ‘kick Bryan Caraway’s ass’ in Japan

Manny Gamburyan (13-9 MMA, 4-7 UFC) is ready to make yet another change in weight classes, as the former lightweight turned featherweight fighter is now eyeing a drop to the UFC’s bantamweight division.

“Manvil” already has an opponent in mind for his 135-pound debut, and it’s none other than Bryan Caraway, a man he has somewhat of a history with.

Both Gamburyan and Caraway served as assistant coaches on Season 18 of The Ultimate Fighter. Manny assisted as a coach on Team Rousey, while Caraway backed-up his girlfriend Miesha Tate.

Although the two never really had any heated confrontations on the set, Manny feels that Bryan owes him a fight, seeing as how he backed out of a grappling challenge on the show.

“Manvil” broke it all down on a recent appearance on The MMA Hour:

“Yeah, I’m dropping down to 135 and I really thought that the fight that makes sense is Bryan Caraway. He’s a good fighter, he’s got his name out there and I respect his knowledge, he’s got an amazing jiu-jitsu game. I would love the debut to be in Japan, that would be awesome because I heard Miesha Tate is in Japan. Or anywhere in Canada. They got a lot of Armenians in Canada and I’ve never been there. So, I know I’m not the only one that wants to fight him, but it would be an awesome fight, I’m sure.”

He continued:

“I was supposed to, on the (Ultimate Fighter) show, Dana White put a grappling match together for me and Caraway. Since Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey were doing their own coaches challenge, he thought I should do a grappling challenge with Caraway. I guess he turned it down, didn’t want to do it or didn’t like that. So now I’m assuming he’s not going to want to fight me, I’m going to be honest. He’s not going to want to fight me, but now he has no other choice because I’m coming to him, I’m not calling him to me, I’m going to him. It’s kind of a personal fight in a sense. I got nothing against those people, Miesha Tate or Brian Caraway. I just want to fight him and whoop his ass, that’s about it.”

Gamburyan is coming off a unanimous decision loss which he suffered to Nik Lentz at May’s UFC Fight Night 40 event in Cincinnati.

That loss snapped a two-fight win streak for “Manvil,” as he had previously scored wins over Cole Miller and Michihiro Omigawa respectively.

Do you have any interest in seeing a bantamweight fight between Caraway and Gamburyan? Sound off Penn Nation!