Kharitonov: I would advise Fedor Emelianenko to be more active

When will be your next fight? Do you plan to fight outside the Strikeforce Heavyweight GP?
Until the GP Semi-Finals I’ll definitely have 2-3 fights. I want to keep myself in a good shape. You can always train hard, but without competing it will only have a negative effect during the fight.  I had four fights during the recent months. I’m always in shape, and always ready to fight, both physically and mentally. So I think in this case more is better. And I would advise the same thing to Fedor Emelianenko.  He needs more fights to get back on top.

You know Fedor for a very long time. Do you feel like something changed in him as a person?
I don’t know if something changed or not. I know one thing – Fedor is a hard worker. We used to train a lot together. We woke up and did a cross country of 5-7km. We used to train 2-2 1/2 hours without stopping for one second. Always at work, always at sparring. Like I said before, Fedor is a very hard working man. He’s very talented. And like people say, if someone is talented, he’s talented in everything. He draws very well.  He has many good characteristics. It’s hard to say what changed in him. In my opinion, he just didn’t fight enough. But the most important thing is that he feels a great responsibility. He has the whole Russia behind him, expecting a victory. So I think it also played some sort of part in his recent defeats. – Full Interview at ValeTudo.ru

Sergei Kharitonov knows what he’s talking about. PRIDE veteran suffered from a continuous injuries over the past years, fighting once a year between 2008 and 2010. Kharitonov is currently 18-4 in his Mixed Martial Arts career, holding victories over Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Pedro Rizzo and Murilo “Ninja” Rua. The Russian will face the winner of the fight between Josh Barnett and Brett Rogers, which is expected to take place sometime this Spring.