
(“He is not human. He is like piece of short, balding iron.” PicProps: Tapology)
As we all discovered when a recent Gambling Addiction Enabler questioned our collective manhood about betting on the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix, former Pride/Dream/K-1 slugger Sergei Kharitonov is currently paying off at fairly epic +2000 odds to win the whole shebang. Now, if we didn’t believe this tourney was headed for chaotic disaster and/or we thought there was a chance in hell those shady internet bookies would make good on a sizable bet, we’d actually consider Kharitonov something of a steal at those odds. Especially since he’s coming out of the weak-sauce side of the bracket and – as he reminds us in a new interview with Tapology.com this week – he’s already beaten two of the so-called favorites.
“People like to think they are experts on things they think they know,” Kharitonov says. “I beat Alistair (Overeem) and (Fabricio) Werdum and (accomplished) that at a time when my stand-up skills were not 25 percent (of) what (they are) now. You do the math.”
In fact, the Russian-paratrooper-turned-Golden-Glory-kickboxer says a bunch of totally badass stuff to Tapology. Stuff that only becomes more badass when you imagine him saying it in monotone, heavily-accented English like a certain 1980s movie villain we could mention. Case-in-point, Kharitonov’s message for first-round opponent Andrei Arlovski: “I will break you.” That’s right, he said it.
Breakage of some sort seems like a good bet in that pair’s match-up, what with Arlovski rolling in on the heels of three straight losses. Granted, we haven’t seen much from Kharitonov lately – just three fights since the end of 2007 – but when you consider he’s only a thumping of Arlovski and a disqualification/withdrawal of Josh Barnett away from the finals, that +2000 starts to sound pretty good.
As for his opening round match-up with the former UFC champ in February, he’s not even sweating it. At least not enough to actually watch footage on the guy.
“I do not watch fights from Andrei Arlovski,” Kharitonov says. “For me he is just another obstacle that has to be removed. I do not care what his problems were or if he was a champion or not. I will break him.”
See? Dude said it again. What do you think the odds are that Arlovski is running down a road in Siberia with a log on his back right now? Not good? Not good.


At +2000 odds, I need a website link to accompany this article so I can lay a bet on him. At those odds, I have $5 I can piss away.