Sergei Kharitonov explains reasons for not signing with the UFC

[Bagatur]

lol everyone latching onto comment about Russians and title shots, and completely disregarding the truth that the UFC HW division is ridiculously inactive. on top of that, the top of HW division is stifled by UFC's love of one Cain Velasquez who has been getting endless rematches.
maybe, just maybe, Kharitonov doesnt want to be fighting scrubs once a year, while Cain keeps getting instant rematches after getting his shit pushed in?

 

[ligthandshadow]

He should have shown some money figures proving that he's making more than he would have with the UFC.

It's hypothetical though, and I don't think the taxation of foreign persons with activities inside the US is favorable to him.

I think it was simply "I can fight a lot more" as opposed to "I can only fight once"...

To be fair, I think the people who fight rarely are "injured"... if he was healthy I am sure they would be more than happy to let him be the Cerrone of Heavyweight.

 

[ligthandshadow]

This. Who is he talking about?

Oleg Taktarov.

 

[Baba Ghanoush]

lol everyone latching onto comment about Russians and title shots, and completely disregarding the truth that the UFC HW division is ridiculously inactive. on top of that, the top of HW division is stifled by UFC's love of one Cain Velasquez who has been getting endless rematches.
maybe, just maybe, Kharitonov doesnt want to be fighting scrubs once a year, while Cain keeps getting instant rematches after getting his shit pushed in?

Huh? I'm pretty sure the majority of Sherdog are pretty pissed off about the state of the HW division and how Cain single-handily stifled any excitement for it. There was a pretty damning poll about whether he deserved the rematch or not. Spoiler Alert: A ridiculous percentage saying he doesn't. Hardly "disregarding the truth."

I'm just personally curious what he's trying to insinuate with his other comment. He should provide an example or shut up with the thinly veiled accusation of prejudice.

 

[Toco]

so he talked talked and said nothing

and he could have went when pride went to shit

 

[leto1776]

i guess he is content crushing cans. i myself would want the challenge and honor you get fighting and beating formidable opponents.

Let me know how well Honor pays to feed a family, or pays the medical bills when you're only 50 and half crippled from fighting so much.

 

[KantoTerror]

i guess he is content crushing cans. i myself would want the challenge and honor you get fighting and beating formidable opponents.

Yep...crashing cans...include the current HW champ on that list of cans....

 

[Tamriel Terror]

he must be getting paid pretty good from kickboxing and the smaller orgs.

 

[leto1776]

Read this and started wondering how many heavies have fought more than once this year. Then I scanned the Sherdog top 10 rankings and found this interesting:

thus far in 2015:

Werdum, 1 fight
Velasquez, 1 fight
dos Santos, 0 fights
Miocic, 1 fight
Arlovski, 1 fight
Browne, 1 fight
Rothwell, 1 fight
Hunt, 1 fight
Overeem, 1 fight
Mir, 2 fights

10 fights between 10 different fighters in almost 9 months.

That is indeed pretty fucking abysmal. Is there any other division stuck in this kind of state?

Women's Bantamweight comes pretty close, but that's it.

 

[Nasiello]

I think it's sad that the top MMA promotion can't keep their HWs busy...

People seem to forget that HW's like to bang, and unless it's a quick KO, that damage accumulates. When the Athletic Commission says "no training for 3 months" it makes it VERY difficult to compete more than twice a year even without an actual "injury" unless your first fight of the year is in January/February.

2 month training (8 week training camp is low side of the norm) + fight + 3 months downtime + 2 months training + fight = 7 months just to get 2 fights without any injury whatsoever.

So, either the HW's stop beating the hell out of each other, fight defensively and wait for the perfect opportunity, and have people complain that they are fighting like flyweights, or they keep beating the hell out of each other, you enjoy it and they get paid. If more heavyweights were able to avoid damage, finish the fights easily, they could fight more often. But even the winner tends to come out of the fight looking like he lost a fight with a power sander in many cases. But isn't that what people pay for and why many love the HW division?

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

Oleg Taktarov.

Lol. I am not going to lie, Oleg is the first guy I thought of as well, but I'm a smartass.

 

[HHJ]

I would disagree there, if Sergei had kept on winning he could have been the #1 HW in Pride a year after debut in the 2004 HWGP, if he'd beaten Aleks he probably would have fought Fedor on NYE 2006.

well,he did have those shoulder injuries too but pride liked to build up fights between rivals for a long time. Mirko had to get 7 wins in a row to face fedor. granted some of those guys werent the best the div had to offer but still....i guess sergei figures if its gonna be that way,id rather get the 7 fights.

 

[dc007]

Okay, so he has no interest in fighting in the UFC..
But.. He would love to fight Werdum again if he were invited..
Make up your mind.

He wants a fantasy land where he fights once against Werdum and can go back to fighting wherever after. Same shit Fedor was asking for in 2009.

 

[screaminleeman]

Read this and started wondering how many heavies have fought more than once this year. Then I scanned the Sherdog top 10 rankings and found this interesting:

thus far in 2015:

Werdum, 1 fight
Velasquez, 1 fight
dos Santos, 0 fights
Miocic, 1 fight
Arlovski, 1 fight
Browne, 1 fight
Rothwell, 1 fight
Hunt, 1 fight
Overeem, 1 fight
Mir, 2 fights

10 fights between 10 different fighters in almost 9 months.

That is indeed pretty fucking abysmal. Is there any other division stuck in this kind of state?

I'll help you out even more, and give you a breakdown of the ENTIRE UFC HW divisions activity since 2013. Depressing but what Dana and Zuffa want, so:

Most active -> Least active
~ 3 years: Total fights [UFC fights] (UFC record)
Rosholt: 10 [6] (5-1)
Potts: 8 [3] (0-3)
Hamilton: 8 [4] (2-2)
Oliynyk: 7 [2] (2-0) <-- Russian on a 11 fight win streak benched by the UFC
Gonzaga: 7 [7] (3-4)
Jordan: 7 [7] (5-2)
Palelei: 6 [6]
Bigfoot: 6 [6] (2-3-1)
Lewis: 6 [5] (3-2)
Mitrione: 6 [6] (4-2)
Browne: 6 [6] (4-2)
Arlovski: 6 [3] (3-0) <-- Belarusian getting screwed over by Dana for Cain
Nelson: 6 [6] (4-2)
Hunt: 6 [6] (2-3-1)
Overeem: 6 [6] (3-3)
Harris: 5 [3] (0-3)
Mir: 5 [5] (2-3)
Miocic: 5 [5] (4-1)
Schaub: 4 [4] (2-2)
Cro Cop: 4 [1] (1-0)
Rothwell: 4 [4] (3-1)
Werdum: 4 [4] (4-0)
Barnett: 3 [2] (1-1)
Big Nog: 3 [3] (0-3)
Struve: 3 [3] (1-2)
JDS: 3 [3] (2-1)
Cain: 3 [3] (2-1)


There is 27 UFC fighters activity.

- There is NO SUCH THING AS ANY UFC HW averaging ANYWHERE NEAR 3 fights per year.
- 10 out of the 27 UFC HW's are averaging 2 fights per year. (~35%)
- 17 out of the 27 UFC HW's are averaging 1> fight per year.

Cry if you like, I did the math for ALL, but NOBODY gives a shit about facts, only their "feelings".

11 fights per card, 52 weeks per year, 572 maximum UFC fight slots for over 600 fighters averages just 1.9 fights per fighter per year.

It is because of A-funking-hole MMA fans that LOVE to watch the 102nd ranked WW (Not in MMA overall, but in the UFC) vs. the 106th ranked UFC WW and the 101st ranked UFC LW vs. the 103rd ranked UFC LW on the preliminary fight slots of those 11 fights in an event.

If you got rid of every weightclass other than the LW & WW with their 100+ fighters in EACH WEIGHTCLASS, ONLY THAN could you keep those two divisions active under a single fight organization umbrella.

Here, let me CLEARLY explain how to solve this dilemma:
1. Divide the 10 WC's into two separate orgs. Unlike UFC-WEC, both orgs have the BEST fighters in the WC's. The WEC had fighters in the same WC as the UFC making the WEC product look like "Minor league UFC".
2. Absolute maximum of 40 fighters per WC in the UFC. Yes, we need to have the UFC fire 60% of BOTH the LW & WW divisions!
3. Hold more than 1 UFC event per week throughout the entire calendar year.

There can be others. Somehow we need to get this information across to the UFC/ Zuffa that unfortunately does not have my math skills.

I want Sherdog to press the UFC to hire ME for this role, FFS, I will even GUARANTEE you I will add the scorecards correctly regardless of whether the contest is a championship bout or not!

Is there any question if I am right given the inaugural Flyweight (?) between Mighty Mouse and Uncle Creepy?:icon_chee

 

[CrashStitches]

Good god why? So we can have some more predictable HW fights? No, I much prefer not being sure of who will win.

Because it's exciting when a new killer bursts onto the scene, and it will help the sport when it happens. Imagine if McGregor were a legit heavyweight, and what that kind of action and charisma could put out there for MMA. I enjoy parity, but it's pretty damn fun to witness greatness ascend. The difference is visible in early vs late 80's boxing. Pre-Tyson, there were several champs including aging Holmes and Spinks. It was a mess. Trevor fucking Berbick became heavyweight champion of the world. Tyson came in and blew all that old shit out the door almost overnight and raised the sport.

 

[Evangelion]

Yeah pretty much, and I get why he said that.

His close friend Alexey Oleinik is 2-0 in the UFC, KO'd Rosholt in his last fight like 6 months ago, and still hasn't a fight booked. That's dumb.

The UFC won't give the easy road to the title shot to non english speaking fighters / marketable fighters. No

The exception being Bagautinov, but that's because the 125lbs division is poor.

Olenik is taking a break to pursue a career as a chef. Awful example, especially since it shows that many times its not the Ufc who is preventing a fighter from fighting.

If anything the Ufc would love to have its top hws fighting more

 

[TCE]

I'll help you out even more, and give you a breakdown of the ENTIRE UFC HW divisions activity since 2013. Depressing but what Dana and Zuffa want, so:

Most active -> Least active
~ 3 years: Total fights [UFC fights] (UFC record)
Rosholt: 10 [6] (5-1)
Potts: 8 [3] (0-3)
Hamilton: 8 [4] (2-2)
Oliynyk: 7 [2] (2-0) <-- Russian on a 11 fight win streak benched by the UFC
Gonzaga: 7 [7] (3-4)
Jordan: 7 [7] (5-2)
Palelei: 6 [6]
Bigfoot: 6 [6] (2-3-1)
Lewis: 6 [5] (3-2)
Mitrione: 6 [6] (4-2)
Browne: 6 [6] (4-2)
Arlovski: 6 [3] (3-0) <-- Belarusian getting screwed over by Dana for Cain
Nelson: 6 [6] (4-2)
Hunt: 6 [6] (2-3-1)
Overeem: 6 [6] (3-3)
Harris: 5 [3] (0-3)
Mir: 5 [5] (2-3)
Miocic: 5 [5] (4-1)
Schaub: 4 [4] (2-2)
Cro Cop: 4 [1] (1-0)
Rothwell: 4 [4] (3-1)
Werdum: 4 [4] (4-0)
Barnett: 3 [2] (1-1)
Big Nog: 3 [3] (0-3)
Struve: 3 [3] (1-2)
JDS: 3 [3] (2-1)
Cain: 3 [3] (2-1)


There is 27 UFC fighters activity.

- There is NO SUCH THING AS ANY UFC HW averaging ANYWHERE NEAR 3 fights per year.
- 10 out of the 27 UFC HW's are averaging 2 fights per year. (~35%)
- 17 out of the 27 UFC HW's are averaging 1> fight per year.

Cry if you like, I did the math for ALL, but NOBODY gives a shit about facts, only their "feelings".

11 fights per card, 52 weeks per year, 572 maximum UFC fight slots for over 600 fighters averages just 1.9 fights per fighter per year.

It is because of A-funking-hole MMA fans that LOVE to watch the 102nd ranked WW (Not in MMA overall, but in the UFC) vs. the 106th ranked UFC WW and the 101st ranked UFC LW vs. the 103rd ranked UFC LW on the preliminary fight slots of those 11 fights in an event.

If you got rid of every weightclass other than the LW & WW with their 100+ fighters in EACH WEIGHTCLASS, ONLY THAN could you keep those two divisions active under a single fight organization umbrella.

Here, let me CLEARLY explain how to solve this dilemma:
1. Divide the 10 WC's into two separate orgs. Unlike UFC-WEC, both orgs have the BEST fighters in the WC's. The WEC had fighters in the same WC as the UFC making the WEC product look like "Minor league UFC".
2. Absolute maximum of 40 fighters per WC in the UFC. Yes, we need to have the UFC fire 60% of BOTH the LW & WW divisions!
3. Hold more than 1 UFC event per week throughout the entire calendar year.

There can be others. Somehow we need to get this information across to the UFC/ Zuffa that unfortunately does not have my math skills.

I want Sherdog to press the UFC to hire ME for this role, FFS, I will even GUARANTEE you I will add the scorecards correctly regardless of whether the contest is a championship bout or not!

Is there any question if I am right given the inaugural Flyweight (?) between Mighty Mouse and Uncle Creepy?:icon_chee

Thanks for doing the math, but a heads up..UFC has 569 fighters on their current roster, not over 600.

 

[Source]

The anti Russian conspiracy may be a real thing. I doubt it's costing any fighters title shots. There was a reason why the UFC wasn't signing Russian fighters. The contracts are next to impossible to enforce. If the fighter or their management wants out of the contract they refuse to fight and take fights in Russia. Minikov is the perfect example of this. Anyone that listens to the mma insiders podcast knows what I'm talking about.

 

[dmwalking]

Spoken like a true prize fighter. I don't blame him. Freedom is nice. Making money on your own terms is nice. Not having to work for a dickhead like Dana is nice. Not sure about his anti russian conspiracy, but other than that, I respect his decision.

 

[Ashi Barai]

So disappointing he never got signed.

I thought he actually killed Arlovski when they fought in Strikeforce.

i was siting right by the cage that night and it really looked like he was killing
arlovski. was scared until i saw him finally stand up.