NEW YORK – On Friday at Bellator 215, veteran heavyweight Sergei Kharitonov will get to add a Bellator headliner to what’s already been a pretty eventful career. Don’t expect the big spot, however, to be accompanied by big words.
Speaking to MMAjunkie prior to the main event opposite Matt Mitrione (13-6 MMA, 4-1 BMMA), which airs on Paramount and streams on DAZN from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., Kharitonov (28-6 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) was direct in his answers about the matchup and its possible implications.
Asked to break down Mitrione based on his most recent performances, Kharitonov simply said, through an interpreter, that “his weak side is wrestling.” Kharitonov also avoided stacking up Mitrione against other names on his extensive list of previous rivals, saying only that the fellow headliner is “one of the top fighters in Bellator.”
Kharitonov isn’t exactly off in either assessment. Mitrione is, after all, coming off a loss in which Ryan Bader exploited his self-admitted wrestling weakness and “rode me like a pony.” The loss spoiled Mitrione’s perfect Bellator run after significant wins over Roy Nelson and Fedor Emelianenko, and it’s fair to say he remains a force in the promotion’s heavyweight division.
Kharitonov has had a shorter and proportionately less victorious Bellator stint, but there’s no denying the current momentum of his almost 20-year-old career. His most recent display, at last October’s Bellator 207, was a first-round knockout over the notoriously resilient Nelson, at the end of a four-fight winning streak. The first of those triumphs was also at Bellator, after a promotional debut loss to Javy Ayala.
Considering the heavyweight division now finally has a champion in tournament winner Bader, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched for Kharitonov to already entertain some thoughts of gold. But that, he said, isn’t the case, as his focus lies exclusively on Mitrione at the moment.
When it comes to that, Kharitonov says he feels great after training camp. And while his prediction of how the heavyweight clash will go was short, it was also promising for fight fans.
“It will be a very exciting fight,” Kharitonov said.
For more on Bellator 215, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.
