Every fighter has to start somewhere, and in this series, we take a close look at the debut of one of the sport’s biggest stars.  By studying his first professional outing, we can hopefully use our old buddy hindsight to see what it tells us about his subsequent career.  Was it obvious he was something special right from the beginning?  How has he changed and developed?  Where might he go from here?  Let’s look at the debut of the then 20-year old, Sergei Kharitonov on August 11th 2000.

The Debut:

Unlike the two subjects in our series so far, young Sergei’s debut came as part of a one-night tournament.  So rather than simply look at his first fight, we’ll take an overview of his performance throughout the night.  Held by the oddly named “Brilliant” promotion, the tournament took place at the Yalta Hotel in Yalta, a historic and beautiful resort on Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula that juts out into the Black Sea.  And if you think the location is a little odd, well, the actual venue was beyond strange.  From watching the footage, the show seems to have taken place in the hotel ballroom, watched by a crowd of perhaps 200-300 people sat down for an evening meal and watching in a slightly bemused way as 8 fighters from across the former Soviet Union beat the tar out of each other.

Kharitonov came out looking calm and supremely confident for his first round fight with Kyrgyzstan’s Zamir Syrgabayev.  A veteran of the Moscow based IAFC Pankration championships, Syrgabayev had a clear edge in experience, sporting a professional record of 3-4, including a pair of stoppage losses to late 1990s Russian ‘no holds barred’ star Mikhail Avetisyan.  Kharitonov, waggling his bare fists together in a way reminiscent of Wanderlei Silva as he was introduced, started out quickly, landing a good leg kick, followed by a left jab and the first of many attempted kicks to the head.  Clearly, Kharitonov was a confident boxer even at this stage, slipping in a nice uppercut as Syrgabayev went for a takedown.  The bare fisted Syrgabayev managed to slip in a nice left hook as Kharitonov went for a head kick and the debutant responded by clinch before scoring a beautiful Judo ipponzei hip throw and slipping neatly into the mount.  Keeping his balance nicely, Kharitonov fired off some right hands before his opponent wriggled free.  Still, Kharitonov maintained control though, holding onto Syrgabayev’s head and slowly manoeuvring him into position to land a heavy knee to the skull.  Syrgabayev managed to get back to his feet quickly but was still held tight around the head.  Kharitonov, still working efficiently, took Syrgabayev down again, a little messier this time but once again landed in the mounted position.  Showing great balance and composure he waited for opportunities to strike and, on seeing them, fired off 8 or 9 punches to Syrgabayev’s head.  Syrgabayev seemed to be defending reasonably well until a heavy left hand dazed him and Kharitonov quickly followed up with three painful looking right hands to force the stoppage.  The whole thing had taken just 2:40 and Kharitonov had looked excellent throughout.

In his next fight, Kharitonov faced the much smaller and very nervous looking Viacheslav Kolesnik.  Kharitonov looked even more composed this time around, patiently stalking his jittery opponent from the start.  Kolesnik repeatedly bounced away from the taller, heavier, younger man while Kharitonov fired a few leg kicks and slowly paced after him.  Kharitonov continually held centre ring, as he patiently followed Kolesnik around, his hands dangling almost contemptuously by his waist.  As in the first fight, Kharitonov tried a few high kicks but had far more success rattling off kicks to his opponent’s legs.  One of these prompted Kolesnik to make his first real offensive move.  He rushed in for a single leg takedown that Kharitonov defended with ease.  As Kolesnik bounced away, Kharitonov finally landed the shot he’d been looking for.  A hard lead right hand slammed into the side of Kolesnik’s face with a nasty, flat smacking sound and Kolesnik scurried off to his corner, holding his face with both hands, verbally submitting from the first real punch of the fight at 1:29.

Kharitonov faced much stiffer opposition in the final though, as he squared off with Roman Savochka, another IAFC veteran who had lost twice to Mikhail Avetisyan.  Savochka, 22 years old and a good size match-up for Kharitonov entered the ring bare fisted while our subject had slipped on the grappling gloves for the first time.  Savochka had made quick work of Ramazan Mezhidov in the first round (an impressive win since the Russian wrestler held wins over Viacheslav Datsik, Heath Herring and Challid Arab), choking him out in just over a minute.  And he’d finished off Denis Sobolev with the same rear naked choke in just over 20 seconds in the second round.  Clearly, these two were by far the best fighters in the tournament and both started out looking to strike.  Savochka went for the first takedown, which Kharitonov momentarily stuffed, before being tripped to the mat.  Kharitonov quickly scrambled free but Savochka neatly reversed him and Kharitonov ended up on his back, head under the ropes and taking a few hard looking punches.  Looking ragged and disorganised for the first time, Kharitonov was lucky the referee ordered a standing restart in the middle.  Once again, Savochka scored with a powerful takedown and worked himself quickly into a side mount, prompting Kharitonov to try and roll out of trouble.  Savochka took his back and tried for his third choke of the evening but Kharitonov kept on rolling right into his opponent’s closed guard.  From there Kharitonov threw a few shots to head and body until the referee ordered another restart.  Somewhere in there Savochka had suffered a hand injury and, clearly in pain, he asked for a timeout.  Once his corner had looked at it, the fight restarted with the two men looking ready to box.  Kharitonov landed a beautiful, fast left jab and Savochka bulled forward for the takedown.  This time Kharitonov stayed upright and landed a short left hook and a follow up shove that sent him to the mat and popped the gumshield out of his mouth.  Again, the official called for a restart and again Savochka went for the double leg takedown.  He managed it this time but Kharitonov quickly wriggled free and was back on his feet.  Savochka, again called for a timeout and this time the fight, after a stop-start couple of minutes was finally halted around the 4-minute mark with Savochka’s hand injury costing him the fight and handing Kharitonov the tournament and a neat little trophy.

Analysis:

What does that tell us about Kharitonov?  Well, somewhat surprisingly, he used to think he was pretty good with his feet.  We’re used to seeing him throw a few leg kicks here and there but in his first couple of fights he was constantly looking to hoof his opponents in the head.  It’s an element of his game that he seems to have dropped these days in order to concentrate more on using on his fists.  And a good thing too.  Kharitonov was a dangerous, technically gifted puncher back in 2000 and he’s built on that since.  Whether that story about him hiding his extensive boxing background and ‘secretly’ winning a silver medal in the Asian Games as a Super-Heavyweight for Tajikistan is true or not (I’m heavily inclined to believe it is), clearly he’s one of the most gifted boxers in MMA today.  Look at the way he dismantled Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua, in April 2004.  Or most recently, Pedro Rizzo, who Kharitonov destroyed in a mere in 2:02 June, again by using his boxing skills and sometimes underrated power to batter a more varied, but less technically correct striker.  Also note his patient, inevitable destruction of Choi Mu Bae and the way he exchanged shots with Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera (our subject’s only loss) in their August 2004 war and there are clear parallels between the Kharitonov of 2000 and the one we see today.

So, aside from Kharitonov’s impressive boxing skills, what else was notable about his fights back in the Yalta Hotel?  The way he finished off Syrgabayev was eerily similar to his June 2004 pummelling of Semmy Schilt.  In both fights he secured the mount and showed great poise, balance and patience to stay on top, dishing out punishment for the win.  Oddly for someone who was immediately stuck with the “submission artist” label when he made his Pride debut, Kharitonov showed little of that in his first evening of paid fighting.  His submission defence was good against Savochka but he never attempted any submissions of his own.  Clearly he has more than enough skill on the mat to armbar the likes of Jason ‘Nobunaga’ Suttie (Pride: Bushido 1) and the ridiculous Corey ‘LA Giant’ Peterson but generally speaking, Kharitonov relies on his mat skills to defend against submissions (again, see his underrated classic with Noguiera) so he can go to work with his fists.  And in that respect, his approach seems to have changed little.

Although he put in 3 very impressive performances Kharitonov did display a couple of weaknesses that may be instructive.  First, his takedown defence seemed suspect and he may still be vulnerable against a top class wrestler.  However, he’s clearly worked on this since and anyone trying that strategy will also need to be aware of his excellent defence on the mat and ability to wriggle his way out of trouble.  The other potential problem was the way he seemed so rattled when Savochka was punching away at him on the ground.  Kharitonov’s formerly composed manner soon disappeared and he seemed more than a little disorganised.  Understandable with somebody bashing you in the face but it could be a problem for him if, in the future he faces someone (such as his former team-mate Fedor Emelianenko) who can get him down on the mat and then throw a good barrage of hard, accurate shots.

Conclusion:

Kharitonov was clearly a very good fighter from the outset, his mix of boxing ability and submission skill and awareness being a formidable combination.  And a fairly unusual one in MMA as well.  Few fighters have his kind of boxing base and he’s clearly one of the best bodypunchers in the business (just ask Rua).  Oddly though, just from watching those early fights it seems Roman Savochka had just as much potential.  Savochka certainly had Kharitonov in trouble (far more so than Rizzo or Rua) and he remains active on the European scene, fighting in Croatia, Russia and Finland in the last couple of years.  A rematch might be interesting, but Kharitonov, who has built tremendously (in terms of proficiency if not innovation) on the foundation he had back in 2000 would likely blitz Savochka these days.  Whether Kharitonov can really crack the top 3 (Fedor, Cro Cop and Noguiera) in Pride is open to question but he’s earned a title shot and any heavyweight ranking that doesn’t include him in the top 10 would sorely lack credibility.  That’s not something you would have instantly proclaimed from seeing him fight back in August of 2000 but it would have been foolish to dismiss the possibility completely.