A 545lb BATTLE

Sergey Kharitonov

Even in a room full of heavyweight fighters, Sergey Kharitonov stands out. With his thick neck, big shoulders and huge hands he is built like one of the bears living out in the wilds of his Russian homeland.

On Saturday night he will face another huge man in the shape of Daniel Sam, a British heavyweight champion known as ‘The Warrior’.

There is a large Russian population in Chicago. Kharitonov isn’t a sentimental man but he does hope that there will be some countrymen in the audience.

“I’ve fought all around the world but it’s always nice to fight in front of fellow Russians,” he says via an interpreter. “I know there are many Russian people in Chicago so I think there will be some in the audience for sure.”

If there are, they are probably going to see something memorable. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the odds of a knockout in this fight are very high. One punch from men this size is enough to switch anybody’s lights out.

“I haven’t watched too many of Sam’s fights but I know he is a big, strong guy,” says Kharitonov. He shrugs. “But so am I. We can both win the fight by knockout - but of course I think it will be me who wins.”

Kharitonov is well known in the MMA world after spending time in organizations such as PRIDE FC and STRIKEFORCE. The professional kickboxing game is a lot newer to him, which is why he has a 3-3 record.

His first ever kickboxing fight was with Daniel Ghita in 2009. He had never fought in kickboxing or Muay Thai in his life prior to facing the Romanian, who is currently ranked at #3 in the world. Ghita quickly realized Kharitonov didn’t have much in the way of leg-kick defense and he took advantage.

“Yes that was a very hard fight. Very painful,” Kharitonov says, recalling how it ended in TKO when he had to fall to the floor in agony because his legs could no longer stand the punishment. Even slight taps from Ghita were causing him severe pain.

“But it was a long time ago. Of course I have learned many things since then and I don’t think that could happen again. I didn’t have any real kickboxing training at the time. Now I am more complete.”

Kharitonov’s interpreter is an amateur only, a friend helping out. He has imperfect English himself and so there are instances where Kharitonov’s answers are completely lost. One such example is when Kharitonov is asked to outline how his kickboxing game has developed ahead of this Saturday’s fight.

He leans back and talks at length in Russian, waving his hands in the air as he does so and occasionally banging the table to illustrate a point. He stops talking. The interpreter looks at him in silence for a moment, and then turns around.

“He has improved. He thinks it will be a good fight,” he says, condensing five minutes of detailed explanation into two short sentences. Kharitonov doesn’t speak English but he does seem to understand what just happened. He starts laughing out loud.

We will never know what it was that Kharitonov wanted to tell us about his kickboxing. But we will see it for ourselves on Saturday night when he steps into the ring for his GLORY Superfight Series match with Daniel Sam at GLORY 11 CHICAGO.

Daniel Sam

Daniel ‘The Warrior’ Sam (25-8, 13 KO’s) is built like a comic-book superhero. He stands 6’5” and walks around as 270lbs (1.96m/122kg) of solid muscle. Sergey Kharitonov, a former Russian Special Forces paratrooper turned prizefighter, could also be something from a graphic novel.

They are going to collide with a bang at GLORY 11 CHICAGO, which takes place this Saturday October 12 at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Although Kharitonov is a relative newcomer to kickboxing, he is the better known name thanks to his MMA career. For Sam it’s a chance to take out a big name and get back on a roll after going 1-1 under the GLORY banner.

“I’m looking forward to this fight. He’s a big, strong guy and he likes a fight. I’m looking forward to getting in there and smashing it up with him. Obviously his main thing has been MMA and the PRIDE FC ring, Strikeforce and so on, kickboxing is a different game,” says the London, England fighter.

“I’ve watched tape on him, kickboxing fights and MMA fights, looking for weaknesses and things I can take away. I’ve seen a few things. He likes to use his hands, so that’s what I am expecting from him on Saturday.”

Kharitonov’s fortunes in kickboxing have been mixed. While in MMA he has a reputation as a heavy-handed striker, in the professional kickboxing world the landscape is different. Everybody is a ‘striker’ and most of them have been doing it all their lives.

“His first kickboxing fight was against Daniel Ghita and obviously while that was a long time ago there’re still certain things you can take from it. I’m not going to go into specifics… I think you’re going to some heavy leg kicks, let’s put it that way,” Sam says.

‘The Warrior’ is ready to put Kharitonov through a similar ordeal if he can. Despite being London-based, he fights out of Mike’s Gym in Amsterdam, Netherlands and has been training with an all-star heavyweight cast for this fight.

“I actually fought in Thailand three weeks ago, I had four fights in a few days. One on Thursday and then the following Tuesday I had three in one night. I won them all. The rules were the same as GLORY rules pretty much so I know I am fit and ready,” he says.

“After Thailand I had a few days rest then headed to Mike’s Gym in Amsterdam to sharpen up. Been sparring with Saki, Overeem and some other heavyweights. There’re a lot of heavyweights there at the moment.

“He is like a machine Saki - the work rate, the work ethic, the intensity. He has showed me what it’s like to be a top professional and where your game needs to be. Its 100 per cent - when you’re going hard you’re going hard.

“I also sparred with Alistair for this camp. Very hard. Those guys go hard. I’m used to taking heavy shots from those guys so Sergey won’t have anything to shock me with.”

According to Sam, there is nothing like the training room of Mike’s Gym to prepare you for the actual fight. By the sounds of it, the two things are not far removed anyway.

“Sparring there is like a fight. Its war,” he says, shaking his head at the madness of it. “If you can walk out of there then you’re ready to step into the ring. By the time you come out of there your mindset is right.

“Sparring takes place a few times a week and it’s tense in the room before it, people are walking around looking at the floor, not making eye contact with each other until it’s time to go. People get knocked down, knocked out. It’s kill or be killed - same as it is against Sergey on Saturday.”

Sam and Kharitonov aren’t the only heavyweights on the GLORY 11 CHICAGO card. The event’s centerpiece is a four-man Heavyweight Championship Tournament between Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghita, Rico Verhoeven and Anderson ‘Braddock’ Silva. Two more - Errol Zimmerman and Hesdy Gerges - will fight in a tournament reserve match.

GLORY 11 CHICAGO airs live in the USA on Spike TV and will be broadcast in more than 170 territories around the world. Fights from the evening’s GLORY Superfight Series will be available at later date via GloryWorldSeries.com