Sergei Kharitonov Thread

Sergei was the one to beat Fedor in his prime
Yeah THAT Sergei
The seguei who went nuts with Nogueira
 
To much dad bod, Sergey would never handle wrestlers like Timothy Johnson today in Bellator to be honest
Sergey is a lot like me ....” I’m not built for show “ I’m built to go “
 
Sergei was the one to beat Fedor in his prime
Yeah THAT Sergei
The seguei who went nuts with Nogueira

I don't think so.

Fedor consistently did better against top guys, Nog being the prime example.
 
I watched a bunch of his fights recently

He really beat the shit out of poor ninja
I don’t think Rudimar Fidrigo ever took the criticism he should have for putting ninja in that fight , he was way to small to fight Sergei and I don’t think he was ever the same after.
 
I loved Sergei. One of the few fighters including today that would attack the body. Left hooks to the body.
Sergei Fabio Maldonado ( believe or not) and even pico have the best left hooks to the body in mma that I can recall at the moment.

as mentioned the Sammy fight was just a brutal beat down. You could hear each of those hammerfist clobbering Semmy. And the ring white canvas and the aesthetics of pride were unbelievable.

somebody get a god damn ring for mma and have rules that mimick a fight.

When I watch old pride fights it makes me piss and moan about the positions today where you have no offense.
You can’t even tell who the better guy is a lot of times.
Like the bones smith fight. Talk about gaming the rules and really shine a light on how bad the current rules are.

it’s like in old pro wrestling when the guy would put his foot on the ropes to avoid the 3 count.
But mma rules are more absurd.

Aldo had a great LH to the body.
Threw it in combination with the leg kick.
 
I watched a bunch of his fights recently

He really beat the shit out of poor ninja
I don’t think Rudimar Fidrigo ever took the criticism he should have for putting ninja in that fight , he was way to small to fight Sergei and I don’t think he was ever the same after.

Ninja suffered brain swelling from the beating Sergei put on him.
 
I always cite him as an example of using the shoulder roll defense in mma and kickboxing
 
To bad he never signed with UFC back in 2007. A debute against Brandon Vera would have been something.
This man, I was hoping we'd get slim and trim Russian Guile in the UFC after they took over. He's one HW who if he could have maintained the shape he was in when he fought in Pride FC, who knows. He still gets random wins every now and then. Kharitonov is legit af.
 


Beat arguably the GOAT kickboxer in one of the most BRUTAL finishes in MMA history. I showed my roommate, who had never watched MMA before, this fight and he had to leave right after Semmy’s last effort to thrust Sergei off of him with the desperation grunt :D

“What kind of person watches shit like that?!” Come to find out he said about me. Lol! This coming from an ass hole that later on I find out he euthanized his own dog by strangling him with his belt because he was too cheap to take a sick golden retriever to the vet. I realllly hope he gets the Semmy treatment like this one day. I’d love to be the one to administer it! Fucking puke.

Anyway… sorry for the rant!! Sergei is a fucking beast. Underrated in my opinion. Him against Fedor in Strikeforce around the Grand Prix timeframe would have been incredible. Absolutely barn burner.
 
At his very peak Sergei Kharitonov was an absolute machine. 6'4 235lbs and athletic AF with great boxing, strong sambo and strong will to fight to the death. A paratrooper who spent years training with Fedor and the coaches of Russian Top Team.

At his very best his overall skillset wasn't any worse than that of Stipe or Pavlovich. He could fight technically, he could brawl, he could put hands on people and grapple and he had great toughness and endurance. A guy like this would absolutely be in the top 5 in the UFC today and would easily beat the shit out of bums like Lewis and Tuivasa because his skillset from nearly 20 years ago was better than their skillsers are today.

This was a guy who trained sambo with Fedor for years, a guy whoqualified to box in the Olympics and a guy who spent a good amount of time on the ground with Nog and Werdum in their grappling prime and never came close to being submitted. This type of skillset is valid in today's HW division when you also consider how tough and durable this guy was.

Unfortunately his peak didn't last very long due to injuries. Sergei tore ligaments in his shoulder in his fight fight with Overeem and never fully recovered. He couldn't train grappling any more so he dedicated himself to training striking and moved to Holland to train kickboxing with Golden Glory Gym.

He picked up some good skills in Holland and got some nice wins but his overall game suffered and he wasn't nearly in the same shape that he used to be when he was at his peak in Pride but thats expected when you stop grappling. Ultimately he turned into a fat, plodding puncher who's grappling completely regressed and became a guy who has to cut weight to make the 265lb weight limit.

Sergei reminded me a lot of Stipe in terms of his his frame, his toughness and his approach to fighting. Great 1-2 and good grappling with a great chin. Sergeis best performance was against Big Nog. He lost that fight but showed great skills, toughness and endurance. In general that's one of the best HW fights ever.






Sergei pre injuries.
Емельяненко_N9SmKA6.jpeg sergei-kharitonov_original.jpg

Sergei post injuries.
sergei-kharitonov-tyrone-spong-eagle-fc-44-16.jpg

The shoulder injury which hurt Sergei's career:

 
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