His parents were very athletic: Sergei's mother was a volleyball coach, and his father at various times studied boxing, skating, football, and long distance marathon running.

[3] Kharitonov sometimes gets confused with his full namesake Sergey Haritonov, a much less prominent mixed martial arts fighter from Estonia.

After Kharitonov graduated from the Academy, he was contacted by Vladimir Pogodin, the manager of the Russian Top Team, who invited him to join the club.

[7] Sergei Kharitonov trained in Kirieevsk, Russia, under coach Mikhail Illoukhine (Russian: Михаил Илюхин).

Ilyukhin chose Kirieevsk as their training base due to a large number of heavyweight MMA fighters available there.

[8] On September 17, 2007, Kharitonov TKO's Alistair Overeem in the first round in the Hero's 10: Middleweight Tournament Final event, avenging a previous loss.

Sergei faced Josh Barnett, who defeated Brett Rogers on June 18, 2011, at Strikeforce: Dallas, in the next round.

This fight did not materialize, but on November 15 of that year Kharitonov faced Alexey Kudin at M-1 Challenge in Surgut, Russia and defeated him by TKO (punches) in the second round.

In his next appearance, Sergei defeated Tyler East via second-round TKO at Tech-Krep Fighting Championship - Prime on March 21, 2014.

[18] Unfortunately, the bout ended in a No Contest just 15 seconds into the first round after Mitrione landed an accidental groin strike and Kharitonov was unable to continue.

[27] Since signing with team Golden Glory Breda in July 2007, Sergei has been in the Netherlands training with some of the best standup fighters in the world.

After his loss to Jeff Monson in April, the decision was made to make the last fight on his Dream contract a K-1 match at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Final on December 5.

Ghita was originally scheduled to face Kharitonov's teammate Chalid Arrab, who had to withdraw due to an injury.

[30] On December 11 at the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix Final Sergei was defeated by Singh Jaideep by TKO (punches) in the first round.

Kharitonov faced Samoan kickboxer Mighty Mo at the United Glory World Series Finals in Moscow on May 28, 2011.

On March 23, 2012, Kharitonov met Mark Miller at United Glory 15 in Moscow, and won by KO (right hook) in the first round.

[32][33] He was set to fight Jérôme Le Banner at Glory 10: Los Angeles in Ontario, California, United States on September 28, 2013[34] but the Frenchman withdrew after suffering a neck injury.

[35] Kharitonov defeated Daniel Sam via unanimous decision at Glory 11: Chicago - Heavyweight World Championship Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on October 12, 2013.

[39] He lost to Anderson "Braddock" Silva via UD the semi-finals of the Glory 16: Denver - Heavyweight Contendership Tournament in Broomfield, Colorado, US on May 3, 2014.

[40] Replacing Pat Barry who withdrew from the fight for undisclosed reasons, Kharitonov was scheduled to face Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović at Glory 17: Los Angeles in Inglewood, California, on June 21, 2014.

[45] Kharitonov earned a shot at that year’s Olympics, representing former Tajikistan (the former Soviet republics often have ethnic Russians on their teams) but passed on the chance to instead fight in the Pride 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix.

[citation needed] Kharitonov nearly qualified for the Athens Games by winning the silver medal at the 2004 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Puerto Princesa, Philippines.