With an impressive record and an above average résumé, Sergei Kharitonov is easily one of the top fighters outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
16: Years old when he started training combat sambo. Kharitonov is a former Russian Airborne Troops sambo champion and Eurasia Combat Sambo champion. In addition, he also competed in boxing and kickboxing.
11: Professional kickboxing fights, and went 7-4 with five knockouts. Kharitonov faced top-quality opponents like Mighty Mo and Rico Verhoeven in the ring. He fought in different promotions, most notably K-1 and Glory.
18: Years as a professional mixed martial artist. Kharitonov has fought in a number of promotions in different parts of the world. Apart from Ukraine and Russia, he has also been to Japan, Kazakhstan, China and the United States.
3: Fights in one night to start his career. Kharitonov debuted at a heavyweight tournament called Brilliant 2: Yalta's Brilliant 2000, which took place in Yalta, Ukraine. He finished all three of his opponents to win the tournament.
8: Straights wins before suffering his first loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. That successful run included victories over Semmy Schilt and Murilo Rua in Pride Fighting Championships, as well as a heavyweight championship at a promotion called Tournament of Real Men.
4: Former UFC champions faced. Apart from Nogueira, he has also shared the cage with Fabricio Werdum, Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett.
11: Fights in Pride, where we had a pretty good run. Kharitonov lost only to Nogueira, Alistair Overeem and Alexander Emelianenko.
2: Fights in Strikeforce. He entered the promotion's heavyweight grand prix, beating Arlovski and losing to Barnett.
2: Fights in Dream and went 1-1. He submitted Jimmy Ambriz via punches at the final round of the 2008 middleweight grand prix before tapping to Jeff Monson’s north-south choke at Dream 8.
6: Fights for M-1 Global. Before returning to Bellator this October, he last fought at M-1 and the bout ended in a no contest. Other than that, he won all his other matches for the promotion.
6: Losses in his career. Kharitonov may be a relative unknown to some fans, but he has already faced high-level competition. His losses were dealt by Nogueira, Overeem, Emelianenko, Barnett, Monson and surprisingly, Javy Ayala.
3: Fights by decision. In all his 34 fights, Kharitonov went the distance only thrice, and these were against Nogueira, Werdum, and Joey Beltran.
3: Wins in under one minute. He KO'd Osmanli Vagabov at 0:47 and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou at 0:40, and submitted John Delgado at 0:34.