the list is growing

Two days after the announcement of one of its highest profile free-agent signings to date, Bellator continues to bolster its roster with the addition of a veteran heavyweight.

The promotion inked former UFC and WEC lightweight champion Benson Henderson earlier this week, and now brings Russia’s Sergei Kharitonov (23-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) into the fold. Bellator officials confirmed the signing to MMAjunkie, saying Kharitonov has signed an exclusive multi-fight deal.

Terms were not disclosed, nor was a time table or opponent for Kharitonov’s promotional debut.

Kharitonov has won five straight and seven of his past eight over the past five years. He began his pro career in 2000 and by 2003 had moved to PRIDE, where he went 8-3 – including wins over Murilo Rua, Semmy Schilt, Pedro Rizzo and current UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum. And under the Hero’s banner in Japan, he knocked out eventual Strikeforce heavyweight champion and current UFC contender Alistair Overeem in the first round.

Kharitonov signed with Strikeforce in 2011 to compete in the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix. In the opening round, he knocked out Andrei Arlovski midway through the fight. But in the semifinals, he was submitted by Josh Barnett.

Nearly a year later, he returned to work in his home country and started his current five-fight tear – all of which have been stoppage wins. Included in that mix has been three TKO wins under the M-1 Challenge flag in Russia, China and Kazakhstan.

Now the 35-year-old Kharitonov, a standout boxer who just missed qualifying for the 2004 Olympic Games, will try his hand at Bellator’s heavyweight division, which is currently ruled by Kharitonov countryman Vitaly Minakov – who hasn’t fought for the promotion in nearly two years, but retains the title despite three fights outside the promotion in Russia.

Bellator’s heavyweight division is largely composed of up-and-coming talent, but also includes veterans like Cheick Kongo, Bobby Lashley, Ken Shamrock and Kimbo Slice.

http://mmajunkie.com/2016/02/bellator-signs-pride-strikeforce-veteran-heavyweight-sergei-kharitonov-to-multi-fight-deal

Kharitonov would have been a good pickup for the UFC considering the UFC currently just has strikers atop the division.

I wouldn't mind watching him knock Kongo the F out.

I just can't put too much stock into Bellator's signing of guys like him.
Sure, he's a decent fighter, maybe top 20 HW. But because of their policy of allowing their fighters to compete in other orgs, they'll be lucky to get 1 or 2 fights a year out of him.
They already have a bunch of guys like that. I just don't see this signing bolstering their roster much, given that he's probably also on 3 other rosters.

chris leben also just signed with bellator

drainbamage wrote:

chris leben also just signed with bellator

What?!!!!! Thought dude retired.

Gecko wrote:

drainbamage wrote:

chris leben also just signed with bellator

What?!!!!! Thought dude retired.

He did. I'm not really sure what he's thinking.

If he wins their MW title, is Coker gonna be able to keep a straight face when calling him the "world champion"?

kharitonov is a legitimate top ten. Top fifteen is fucking Rosholt, are you kidding me. He also should beat "big country" and Mir. All the way to top five, i would give him a fair chance.
As far as Leben, did he wake up from the couple of years of memory loss and just started swinging again

Kharirotov is not a top 10 HW fighter.
Come on.

i agree with commie that sergei is a top 10 HW.

im excited for leben to fight again. so many mw fights for him at bellator.

next one up that will sign with them is WANDY!!!!

Again;
Bellator: The UFC Graveyard

yeah but everyone already knows that.
its not like anyone debates that.
however bellator signing fighters like wandy, leben, the punk, henderson and many more im sure that we will hear of in the next few weeks is a great thing because these guys are exciting fighters and it will 100% help boost ratings for bellator and thats all they need.

are these fighters at the top of their game? no. who cares? i am a die hard mma fan and i want to watch exciting fights no matter if the guy is a #1 ranked fighter or a #50 ranked fighter and thats why i love what bellator is doing.

what they really need to do is get the diaz brothers over there..

I hear what you're saying, but my major issue is with Bellator inevitably selling these guys as "the top fighters in the world".
I'm not against people making money, and I'm talking about both Bellator and the fighters. But maybe it's just the purist in me who just can't get past the fact that these guys as a group collectively are basically UFC rejects/castoffs, and I'll never be able to take them seriously as legitimate "top fighters" because of that.
It's one thing to fight there as an up and comer. But to go there after being shown the door by a superior org, I don't know. Like I said, I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to keep getting paid by no means. It's just about the product being put out there that I kind of have a hard time swallowing.

with the exception of kongo i dont think anyone was a ufc reject. im pretty confident the majority of them chose to go over to bellator.

They are some of the top fighters in the world and are former champions. Id market them as some of the best fighters in the world as well. thats what promoters do. UFC is promoting sage northcutt, paige van zandant, ronda rousey and conor mcgregor as the saving grace for mma and the only one who is still holding that up for them is conor and that might end soon. With the exception of rousey and conor theres no real exciting marketable people in the ufc and the ppv numbers are pretty shitty for a company who is dominating the MMA industry. Every single champion with the exception of conor isnt a marketable champion and if conor loses what do you have left?

bellator has an excellent roster of fighters and they barely do any promoting or marketing of their fighters and thats what hurts Bellator. they need a new marketing campaign and ithat would help them out tremendously. Scott Coker is really starting to turn things up just like he did with strikeforce and do you remember when people use to shit on strikeforce until the UFC had to purchase them because they were starting to grow rapidly and almost every one from strikeforce was a top ranked ufc fighter or current ufc champion ( lawler, rockhold, cormier, werdum, rousey and others ) But UFC doesnt have the money to buyout Bellator from Viacom. Thats a problem for ufc.

I personally feel UFC rode the wave and it is starting to crash and even though their numbers bounced back in 2015 averaging 565k ppv buys compared to a laughable 265k ppv buys in 2014 ( which is a shitty number for the #1 ORG ) i sense that the other mma leagues will benefit from bad decisions and greed from the ufc.

5 years ago people would never consider leaving the UFC and now you here people talking about it all the time and some are even moving to these other places. yes top fighters who chose themselves to leave.

lets give it sometime and see where Bellator is at in 2017..

ufc lost the campaign to get rampage back...

rampage back to bellator.

Gecko wrote:

drainbamage wrote:

chris leben also just signed with bellator

What?!!!!! Thought dude retired.

Naw he just got really no good and over-roided. We call that Belator training camp.

Let's not pretend for even a second here that Bellator's roster talent is even remotely comparable to the UFC. Yeah it's fun to say things like "they are former UFC champions" and all that, but we're talking about guys like Bendo and Rampage here, not Aldo and Weidman. You can say they went to Bellator by choice and not because they were rejected by the UFC, but that's just a pretty package to put them in. The UFC does not give two shits about those guys going to Bellator. And if the UFC really wanted to keep them, they would have.
Put the top 10 fighters in each weight class against each other from each org (assuming Bellator even HAS ten fighters in each weight class) and tell me with a straight face that it wouldn't be a landslide domination by the UFC fighters.

I'm not debating that the UFC has hit a rough patch, but to compare the talent level of the two orgs is laughable. Picking up a handful of UFC castoffs does not give you a top-tier roster. It gives you a WSOF-level roster.

i never insinuated that the roster at bellator was close to the UFC roster talent wise. I understand UFC has the cream of the crop and i applaud them for that even if the shows they are producing are watered down and at most times boring. But they dont have all of the top talent and Bellator is starting to make waves. they are the little kid at the beach who just put their toes into the water and its taking time for them to get all the way in.

its not fun to say former ufc champions its factual. Yes we are talking about ben henderson who is a top 10 WW and LW at the current time and Rampage who is an MMA Legend and still is a top 10 rated fighter. these are excellent fighters to add to a growing roster

aldo and weidman will never be champions in their divisions ever again and going off of your logic its fun to say former ufc champions but they both got washed up with ease and will never be the top of the top ever again. but they are still great fighters and i hope aldo jumps to bellator.

again, its factual and not a pretty package to put them in and youre right that the ufc doesnt give 2 shits about them and thats where the problem is if the current roster for the ufc is influenced by decisions that other top fighters are making and now they can go to bellator and make more money and fight against top ranked guys all the i dont give a shit about those guys will become a problem for the ufc. if bellator keeps getting those loose end guys with name recognition and credentials to match it will 100% become a problem for the ufc.

its the same exact thing as strikeforce compared to the ufc years ago. everyone would say the same shit about strikeforce. all their fighters are washed up or sucked osp, yoel romero, gegard, larkin, woodley, bobby green, tate, rousey, saffeideine, gilbert melendez, barnett, reem, bigfoot, arlovski etc. these guys suck.. lawler has no chin, henderson is out of his prime, werdum is a ufc reject, dan cormier is a joke and would get killed by any ufc hw, rockhold this, jacare that, womens mma sucks and has no use in the world of mens mma, blah blah blah and guess what.. once they were bought out by the ufc all that shit that ufc shills and top brass of ufc were talking about these fighters blew up in their face and still today every fighter that came over is either champion or a top ranked fighter who would never of been mentioned if they didnt go to the ufc. UFC does great promoting and they build their fighters in a great way. So you cant compare the 2 rosters because Bellator doesnt promote their fighters or build them up. Im sure you will see that change once they start building up their roster more and more.

They have enough talent this far to keep them competing and if they promote guys like koreshkov, mcgreery, mvp, pitbull, brooks, chandler, davis, henderson, and a few others they will continue to shine. will they ever be bigger than the ufc? i doubt it but if ufc keeps making bad judgment moves it is definitely possible

I'm not really sure we're having the same argument anymore.

My point is yeah, it's great for Bellator to get a few UFC scraps here and there, but that's not how you build a legacy or a nucleus for a deep and promising roster.
If they're taking these UFC castoffs and promoting them as the cream of the crop in Bellator, what does that say about their own roster and standards?
If champions and top ranked UFC fighters (not nomads like Bendo and washed up guys like Rampage and Kongo) start jumping ship to Bellator, then yeah; Bellator is suddenly a threat to the throne. But what's the winning formula for them right now? Their homegrown guys beating up on over-the-hill former UFC fighters looking for a big payday, or over-the-hill UFC fighters beating up on Bellator's best homegrown fighters and proving where the best fighters truly reside?
I just don't see a scenario where Bellator ultimately comes out looking better off by signing these guys.

same exact argument. im sure of it.

Top ranked ufc fighters are going there already. henderson top 10 fighter in 2 weight classes on ufc page before he left. josh thompson was a top 10 fighter also. phil davis top 5 fighter when he left.

Getting what you need isnt getting scraps so lets be clear on this. youre telling me that ben henderson is a washed up fighter and "ufc scraps" but hasnt lost a fight to anyone who wasnt a champion at the time or a #1 contender and this is because the ufc doesnt need or want fighters like this.. so lets just be on the same page here. when the ufc purchased strikeforce and took the "scraps" of strikeforce you know the current ww champion and p4p ranked fighter robbie lawler who at the time of the purchase was 3-5 in strikeforce coming off a loss to larkin was that a smart business decision of the ufc or was it a bad decision to take over half of the roster who werent champions, on losing streaks, and some would consider washed up. but guess what they went to a new promotion and please take a look at all the current ufc champions and top ranked fighters and p4p lists.. yep all of those "scraps" are on it. so you do build a legacy by taking what you need even if some people may consider them "" castaway, scraps, nomads" this is a perfect chance for bellator to grab as many fighters as possible and give them the same opportunity the strikeforce people had BUT we need to keep getting the top 10 ranked fighters to switch over and that will be the key to success. Bellator doesnt need the ufc champions because they will build their own in due time and that is something that i hope happens sooner rather than later.

But what's the winning formula for them right now? Their homegrown guys beating up on over-the-hill former UFC fighters looking for a big payday, or over-the-hill UFC fighters beating up on Bellator's best homegrown fighters and proving where the best fighters truly reside? wrote:

the winning formula is taking the top 5 or 10 fighters from all orgs they can and putting them against their current roster to build up a legacy. its a no brainer.

I have to agree with drainbamage here, especially with recent "free agents". Just two years ago there was never a top level, hell even a bottom feeder fighter in the UFC scoping out other options, being a free agent. If they weren't being cut, they weren't leaving the UFC.
They wanted to keep Bendo, they wanted Rampage so much so that they went to court over it, and they damn sure want to keep Overeem right now. But he's likely the next guy to go.
For the first time ever in the history of the UFC fighters are letting their contracts expire... there's gotta be good reason for it... right?

I think that Bellator's end plan with signing fighters is simple, have the better more exciting stable of mixed martial artists and a few freakshows never hurt...

Chrom wrote:

I have to agree with drainbamage here, especially with recent "free agents". Just two years ago there was never a top level, hell even a bottom feeder fighter in the UFC scoping out other options, being a free agent. If they weren't being cut, they weren't leaving the UFC.
They wanted to keep Bendo, they wanted Rampage so much so that they went to court over it, and they damn sure want to keep Overeem right now. But he's likely the next guy to go.
For the first time ever in the history of the UFC fighters are letting their contracts expire... there's gotta be good reason for it... right?

I think that Bellator's end plan with signing fighters is simple, have the better more exciting stable of mixed martial artists and a few freakshows never hurt...

Overeem re-signed with UFC Because he was guaranteed a headliner in the netherlands and a title shot with a win and he feels that he could beat werdum again.

Thats exactly what they are looking for the more exciting fighters that are going to give the crowd the action they want. Japan has been putting on freak show matches for years and it has always been successful and Bellator is following that footprint.

Also Scott coker seems to have an excellent relationship with the fighters from Strikeforce and I wonder if that will play into their decision when the contracts are up. youve never heard a fighter that was under coker bad mouth him for anything.

I don't know, I'm getting kind of exhausted of this debate because we're just going in circles.

Bendo was going nowhere in the UFC, he knows it and they know it. His time is up there. Just like Thompson and Davis and whoever else. That doesn't mean they're shit fighters. That's not what I'm saying when I call them scraps. I'm saying the UFC has no need for them. Therefore, they do not care about losing them. Ergo, "castoffs". Just because they're big pickups for Bellator doesn't make them any less of UFC castoffs. Which takes me back to my original point; that's the reason I don't take Bellator all that seriously.
And the Strikeforce thing is comparing apples and oranges. The UFC bought Strikeforce and all existing contracts. Bellator is not absorbing the UFC's roster, so i dont understand the comparison. And of course they're gonna give SF's top guys some fights in the UFC, and of course some of them are gonna succeed. I'm not sure what you're implying that proves with the topic at hand. They didn't take SF's "scraps", they took the entire roster!

I think you're getting too hung up on how I'm labeling the fighters in question. Just because the UFC doesn't want or need them, doesn't mean they're hot garbage and Bellator is filling it's roster with a bunch of Ken Shamrocks. But because the UFC let them walk without much of a fuss, its pretty clear theyre comfortable living without them. The UFC has like 500 fighters, I'm not gonna pretend like it's a huge deal when a couple guys who have reached their ceiling were signed by Bellator.

phil davis beat 3 of the top 5 in the lhw division and lost a split decision to bader which was bullshit. that guy could 100% hang with the top of the top in the lhw division. henderson was on a 2 fight win streak one was fight of the night and he was on the rise in the ww division and still a top ranked lw. i dont understand how you could say he was going nowhere thats like claiming gustafosons time is up because he lost to jones and rumble and cormier but i guess that is a big part of the confusion here. thomson is another guy who was fighting really well and lost a few questionable decisions via split decision but he clearly showed that he could hang with the top of the ufc division. maybe they couldnt be champions but they could definitely make a run for the belt with no questions asked.

i understand the ufc has a huge roster and thats part of their problem now as shown in the watered down fight cards and no appeal to the casual fans because they only push a handful of fighters. But i also disagree with you saying that the ufc doesnt need these guys. these are guys that were champions, top ranked in multiple divisions, guys who competed against the top and won the majority of the times. how doesnt a company need/want fighters like this??

is lombard a bellator castoff? is askren a bellator castoff?

the strikeforce comparison is mentioned because at that specific time everyone was shitting on strikeforce just like people shit on bellator saying their shows suck, the fighters would get killed in the ufc, and even dana white publicly made jerk off comments about the talent and org in general. but strikeforce kept growing and it became a problem for the ufc because they were eating up a good percent of the market share and the ufc did exactly what they did to pride, wec, and invicta, they purchased them out to dead the competition. UFC cant buy Bellator because they are backed by Viacom and if they keep taking these top 5 or 10 cast offs it will grow into an issue that the UFC will not have a way to solve it this time. And the other comparison is that they took the best of strikeforce roster which was labeled as a joke to the ufc and they gave them shots and the talent they aquired came and ran the ufc and now if these said fighters who are jumping over to bellator can make the same waves that the strikeforce guys did then it might be a cause for rapid growth at bellator. I believe the topic at hand is discussing fighters who are not at the absolute top of the charts who are going to a different org and the impact it will have for that org.

ufc just lost a bout against viacom trying to get rampage back.
ufc offered henderson a deal that was going to pay him more than what his previos contract offered but he went with bellator because more upfront money and sponsership money

the ufc didnt just say hey thanks guys take care best of luck out there.. they fought for those guys
the ufc cant be comfortable with anything because of the decline that they are facing and the support that other orgs are starting to get. its becoming more and more clear that this market is starting to shift

a simple solution for the ufc- eliminate the ban of sponsorship money.. problem solved

I don't really know any other way to put this that I haven't already.
The fighters in question are not bad fighters. You keep saying "top 10" this and they "can hang with" that as if im disagreeing with you. Im not even debating you about that, as I've stated several times. What I'm saying is it doesn't hurt the UFC to lose them. And thats becsuse they have nothing to offer the UFC. I'm sorry if this is unkind to Bendo or Davis, but people dont want to see them as UFC champions. That includes Dana, because they aren't really marketsble, even if they're top 10 fighters.
Dana openly admitted to letting Yushin Okami leave because he was in limbo in the UFC in that he won't be fighting for a belt, but is still a top fighter and will only be defeating and thereby blocking the path of other contenders making their way up. Bendo and Davis are in that same category. You can scream top 10 and former champ until you're blue in the face, but that's the sad reality of it. Their time in the UFC has come and gone.

It happens all the time, but I didn't see anybody getting all boned-up when WSOF picked up Okami, Jon Fitch, Jake Sheilds, and Rousimar Palharres.

Just to be clear, I'm not defending the UFC or shitting on Bellator. I could care less where I get my MMA from. I'm just pointing out that nothing new or unheard of is going on here. Bellator is having some success in bolstering their roster, but they're not the first MMA org to sign upper echelon former UFC fighters, and probably won't be the last. There's always somebody willing to pay a certain fighter more money than the UFC.

I don't really know any other way to put this that I haven't already. The fighters in question are not bad fighters. You keep saying "top 10" this and they "can hang with" that as if im disagreeing with you. wrote:

your own words --

but my major issue is with Bellator inevitably selling these guys as "the top fighters in the world". wrote:

can't get past the fact that these guys as a group collectively are basically UFC rejects/castoffs, and I'll never be able to take them seriously as legitimate "top fighters" because of that. wrote:

Yeah it's fun to say things like "they are former UFC champions" and all that, but we're talking about guys like Bendo and Rampage here, not Aldo and Weidman wrote:

Picking up a handful of UFC castoffs does not give you a top-tier roster. wrote:

you were disagreeing with me but now you are saying something different. henderson and ramapge are top 10 fighters and that should offer something to bellator rankings as a whole and people including you should take them seriously because they do have legitimate top 10 fighters in it. its funny you mention aldo and weidman who both got destroyed in their last fights. both were ufc champions and both are not marketable fighters who offer nothing to ufc ppv buys.. your comparision is similar to what bendo and rampage were in the ufc. except rampage had much better ratings.

What I'm saying is it doesn't hurt the UFC to lose them wrote:

-- wrong. it hurts every company on earth to lose a top 5 or top 10 employee. because it brings more attention to the competition.

thats becsuse they have nothing to offer the UFC. I'm sorry if this is unkind to Bendo or Davis, but people dont want to see them as UFC champions. That includes Dana, because they aren't really marketsble, even if they're top 10 fighters. wrote:

--- again your argument holds no value. im not disagreeing with you that ben henderson is a marketable fighter. hes not. but please tell me which of the ufc champions or top 10 fighters are with the exception of conor.... please provide me with marketable fighters outside of conor mcgregor and a suicidal rousey.. you cant.

Dana openly admitted to letting Yushin Okami leave because he was in limbo in the UFC in that he won't be fighting for a belt, but is still a top fighter and will only be defeating and thereby blocking the path of other contenders making their way up. Bendo and Davis are in that same category. You can scream top 10 and former champ until you're blue in the face, but that's the sad reality of it. Their time in the UFC has come and gone. wrote:

--- dana white said what??? so what does dana white have to say about Urijah faber, joseph benevidez, frankie edgar, chad mendes, carlos condit, nick diaz, john dodson, dos santos, etc.. who have fought for the belt multiple times ( a few after they lost their belts ) and havent been able to regain it.. with the exception of frankie ( in my opinion )every person on this list is a gatekeeper in their divisions according to dana white. frankie, and benevidez have crazy streaks right now and the UFC is holding them in limbo because they are gatekeepers i guess. makes no sense to me.

It happens all the time, but I didn't see anybody getting all boned-up when WSOF picked up Okami, Jon Fitch, Jake Sheilds, and Rousimar Palharres. wrote:

people were shocked by the okami release. it was the buzz all over the web because of such a high profile fighter being released.

fitch- never really had any following. he was always scrutinized for his style of fighting and people would literally hate to watch him fight. he would be ridiculed all the time. so him leaving even tho he is a top 5 fighter wasnt that big of a deal because i cant recall another fighter people hate to see fight more than fitch.

shields- how could you throw a bone out about him being released. he was flushed by ellenberger, gsp smothered him. he won a decision over akiyama and his only other wins were against top tier fighters but at the time none of them were top 5 and 1 or 2 were a top 10. he lost that fight against woodley and kampmann but the judges gave him the nod and i cant defend that but shields i wish stayed in the ufc

palharres- i wont even comment because well...... no need to respond because isnt he banned from fighting for doing what he did in the ufc to get him fired? and on top of that he never beat anyone worth mentioning in the ufc.

Just to be clear, I'm not defending the UFC or shitting on Bellator. wrote:

-

Bellator: The UFC Graveyard wrote:

-- seems like that might be considered shitting on a company.

I'm just pointing out that nothing new or unheard of is going on here. wrote:

-- wrong again. this is the first time that this is going on. this is why im spending 45 minutes a day discussing this because since the beginning of MMA time no one has jumped shipped under UFC/ZUFFA and now they are.. Okami,fitch,shields, and pallhares were given the pink slip with no other options but the majority of the fighters we have been discussing opted out and chose to go to Bellator and thats a first!!!