Veteran Russian heavyweight star Sergei Kharitonov is showing no sign of slowing down at the age of 40 after he scored a sensational one-shot knockout of former UFC fighter Oli Thompson at a mixed martial arts event in Dubai.
Former PRIDE star Kharitonov, who was fighting in MMA for just the second time since he left Bellator at the tail-end of 2019, earned his second straight finish after he drilled English fighter Thompson with a first-round right hand, sending his opponent faceplanting into the canvas.
The stoppage came at the 2:54 mark of the first frame and follow’s Kharitonov’s February knockout of Fernando Rodrigurez Jr., which occurred just eight seconds into the second round.
Sergei Kharitonov KO’s Oli Thompson 2:54 into R1 #ParusMMApic.twitter.com/RQq8b6qC9g
The win is the 32nd of Kharitonov’s career, with 21 of those coming by way of knockout. He also holds a record of 7 wins and 4 losses in kickboxing.
Kharitonov also made his professional boxing debut in September, where he defeated former Mike Tyson opponent Danny Williams by second round TKO in Khimki, northwest of central Moscow.
One shot kill
Sergei Kharitonov one-shot faceplants Oli Thompson, remains the best dad bod in MMA and perhaps the sport’s most perfectly emblematic heavyweight. Whenever I think about the fact he used to jump out of planes for a living, I just imagine him landing on people and squashing them.
At a combined age of 122 years old, Glover Teixeira, Andrei Arlovski and Sergei Kharitonov all earned victories today and reaffirmed the true power of Fight Dads. Happy Father’s Day.
That particularly fight was perhaps more memorable for the method in which Kharitonov made his way to the ring rather than what he did inside of it, after he was joined in his entrance by a live bear – causing great consternation among the commentary team, who had initially assumed the bear to be a man in a costume.
And whether or not the bear intimidated Williams remain unclear, but that type of white-knuckle walkout is par for the course for Kharitonov who credits his time in the Russian Airborne Troops for the ice-cool demeanor he brings with him to the cage.
