Once coveted as one of the best heavyweight fighters in the world, the deadly Russian striker now finds himself on the cusp of making a comeback in a big way when he returns to Japan once again to take on Tatsuya Mizuno at the year-end extravaganza, DREAM’s: Dynamite!! 2010.

The former PRIDE star will have chance to take on the finalist of DREAM’s inaugural light heavyweight Grand Prix in Tatsuya Mizuno, who earned his spot in the finals defeating the Dutch striking sensation in Melvin Manhoef via TKO in the first round. However, Mizuno later fell to former DREAM middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi in the finals, succumbing to a rear-naked choke inside of the first round.

The contest will most likely be fought at heavyweight. Mizuno spent the bulk of his career as a heavyweight fighter, however just recently dropped down to the 205-pound class since entering in the promotion’s most recent Grand Prix.

Kharitonov was last seen in action at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2010 Final where he met Singh Jaideep in a special super fight feature at the kickboxing extravaganza. Sergei lost via TKO inside of the first round. The loss squelched any thoughts of the Russian completing a winning streak, after garnering his first such win when he defeated former prospect Takumi Sato via TKO last October.

MMAFighting.com first reported the news of the Sergei/Mizuno match up, which has since been a late addition to the Dynamite!! show.

So, MMA peeps, what do you make of the match up? Will Sergei or Tatsuya reign supreme? Sound off in the comment section below.

Welterweight Jake Ellenberger (18-4) will return after a successful Team USA debut in July to face Korean Doo Won Seo (1-2) on the card.

Lightweight Daisuke Nakamura (16-9) returns to Team Japan versus Berlgian “Moreno” Wim Deputter (18-2) while welterweight Hidehiko Hasegawa (13-10-6) debuts versus American Top Team’s Norman Paraisy (4-0).

Russian Roman Zentsov (17-12) will headline the event in a rematch versus Korean Sang Soo Lee (8-4).

Also on the card, light heavyweight Tatsuya Mizuno (4-3) will fight Bruno Carvalho (3-3).

Undefeated American light heavyweight Bryan Harper (5-0) will fight Mujin Na (0-0).

Lightweight Dutchman Furdjel de Windt (24-10-1) will fight Korean Park Won Sik (0-0).

Lightweight American David Gardner (13-9) will fight Korean Jong Man Kim (3-5-3).

Middleweight American Brandon Magana (5-0) will debut in M-1 versus Korean Hyungyu Lim (0-0).

Heavyweight American Jeremiah Constant (6-5) drew Korean Ji Hoon Kim (1-6).

Heavyweight Dutchman Stefan Struve (13-2) will face Japan’s Yuji Sakuragi (9-12-1).

Russian Radmir Gabdulin (2-0) will fight Min Suk Heo (3-5) in a “Superfight”.

Mizuno dispatched Yoshiyuki Nakanishi (3-1) at 4:13 of round one in the main event.

American Jake Ellenberger (18-4) bounced back from a UD loss in Portland 20 June to win a UD over Frenchman “Paco” Farouk Lakebir (2-1) in Ellenberger’s Japan debut.

Countryman and former TUF contestant Mike Dolce (3-5) was TKO’d at 41 seconds of round two by middleweight “Psycho” Karl Amoussou (7-1-1) of France.

It was Dolce’s first action since season seven of TUF.

Japanese lightweight Daisuke Nakamura (15-9), fresh from knocking out Bu Kyung Jung (0-3) at DREAM.3 last May, won a decision over Bogdan Christea (4-3-1).

Dutch middleweight Jason Jones (6-3) TKO’d DEEP star “Andre” Yuta Watanabe (9-3-3) in the second round.

In SuperFights, Yuki Ito (9-3-3) and Seigo Inoue (4-3-1) came away tops in decisions versus Takaaki Aoki (4-4) and “Mike” Nobuhiro Hayakawa (1-4-2) respecitvely.

Journeyman Romano de los reyes (8-5) upset Japanese welterweight Ken Hamamura (14-5-4) by decision.

Heavyweight Jessie Gibbs (1-0) knocked out Katsuhisa Fujii (9-15-1) at 1:34 of round one.

Light heavyweight Kamil Uygun (6-2) TKO’d Yuji Sakuragi (9-12-1) in the first round.

Heavyweight Frenchman “Komodo” Malick Idiaye (2-1) wrapped up American James Jack (2-2) in a keylock at 3:54 of round one.

Keith Perrigon (2-1) TKO’d Samuel Judes (2-2) at 3:16 of round one.

Light heavyweight Christian N’Pumbu (10-1) TKO’d Bryan Harper (5-1) 32 seconds into the second round.

In M-1 Challenge’s national team format, the Netherlands crushed Japan 4-1 and France edge out the States 3-2.

The K-1/former-PRIDE collaboration featured mismatches of size and skill, world-class MMA, late stoppages, carnival theatrics, a tournament format, and the banshee herself, Lenne Hardt, introducing it all.

The card featured the opening round of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix in which Eddie Alvarez (13-1), “Buscape” Luiz Firmino (12-3), “Hellboy” Joachim Hansen (17-6-1), “Endless Fighter” Mitsuhiro Ishida (16-3-1), “Crusher” Tatsuya Kawajiri (21-4-2), and Katsuhiko Nagata (4-2) all advanced to the next round.

The tournaments seventh and most anticipated match-up betwen “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (14-2) and “JZ” Gesias Calvancante (14-1-1) ended in a No Contest.

In non-tournament bouts, “Mach” Hayato Sakurai (32-7-2) and “Cro Cop” Mirko Filipovic both won first round TKOs and “The Punk” Ikuhisa Minowa won a first round submission.

Ishida and Korean judoka Bu Kyung Jung (0-2) fought the most competitive bout with Ishida squeezing a unanimous decision over the MMA rookie.

The Japanese wrestler, Ishida, whirled around Jung for the first two minutes, peppering leg kicks into the Korean’s thighs.  On Jung’s lunging clinch attempt, Ishida slammed him to the mat.

On the mat, inside Jung’s tightly closed guard, Ishida heaved him into the air and slammed him again before raising back to his feet.

Jung followed and lunged to clinch again, but Ishida ducked.  Jung slammed face first into the corner, Ishida pouncing atop him.

From a full guard body lock, Jung transitioned into an armbar as the Japanese fighter tried to yank free.  It was close, and Jung took the opportunity to kick the struggling wrestler in the face before Ishida broke free.  Another powerful Ishida slam countered Jung’s near miss.

As the ground game went on, Ishida’s spurts of G’n'P became more effective as the Korean filed through submissions, but the ref stood them anyway.

Backed into a corner, Ishida threw a clumsy left roundhouse kick Jung blocked as Ishida slipped.  This time it was Jung who pounced, locking Ishida’s head beneath his armpit for another tight neck crank submission attempt.

Again, Ishida popped free, both fighters slick with sweat by that point, and worked an effective ground’n'pound until the ref stood the fighters.

This time it was Ishida who lunged for a single leg takedown and Jung pulled guard, then slipped a slick armbar on the wrestler.  Again, the “Endless Fighter” slipped free and hammered on the judoka to the first round bell.

The second round began as the first, with Ishida avoiding a head-on collision by circling.  Ishida shot for the same single leg takedown that got him in trouble near the end of round one and Jung again pulled guard and sucked up arms at angles looking for submissions.  Ishida countered by grinding fists into Jung’s face until the ref stood them up.

Ishida made it a trilogy with a third identical takedown and Jung responded as he had to the first two.  Both fighters exchanged leather while Jung worked his high guard into a weak triangle choke, but wasn’t able to lock his leg beneath his knee.

The bout ended with both exhausted fighters pitty-patting each other on the mat.

An argument could be made to give the judoka the win, but the judges saw Ishida’s aggressive ground’n'pound as the deal breaker and awarded him a unanimous decision.

In another exciting tournament fight, at the bell Alvarez and “Dida” Andre Amade (6-3-1) stormed to the center of the ring throwing leather.  The American shot a single leg and stood-up with the ankle he had snatched.  He swept Dida’s other foot from beneath him and dumped the BJJ black belt on his back.

The ref stood Dida and he immediately resumed throwing haymakers, catching Alvarez square on the chin with two big left hooks, then dropping him with a third as the American retreated.

But on the mat Alvarez’s superior wrestling positioned him for a two-minute vicious ground’n'pound onslaught that lead to the TKO stoppage at 6:47 of round one.  Dida was simply overpowered and out-positioned.

Tattooed Norwegian Hansen resembled a snow leopard feasting on Kotetsu Boku (13-5-1) of Krazy Bee.  Since becoming the first MMA fighter to tap in a gogoplata in 2006, the former kickboxer Hansen has been all out on the mat.  He took Boku to the ground and paired an octopus-like submission game with brutal ground’n'pound for the entire 15 minutes.  The decision was unanimous for Hansen.

“Buscape” of Brazilian Top Team found a rear naked choke on undersized Kazuyuki Miyata (5-7) at 7:37 of round one.

In a mild upset, Nagata took a unanimous decision over the Russian Artur Oumakhanov (7-3).

Kawajiri earned the sixth spot in round two of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix with a unanimous decision over surprisingly durable “Black Mamba” Kultar Gill (9-7) of Canada.

The tournament’s most hyped match-up fizzled when Aoki took an errant elbow to the back of the head from Calvancanti after much ado about nothing.  There’s been no clarification about a rematch or whether either fighter will advance in the tournament.

Hidetaka Monma (14-8-3) was never in his fight with Sakurai, but evidently the ref was unaware of the mismatch.  From the top position, Sakurai pounded Monma in the head 20-seconds longer than necessary before the referee called a stoppage at 4:12 of round one.

I’m hereby dividing the MMA universe into two halves.  Those, like me, who’re disgusted to witness “Cro Cop” as a characterture of himself matched up against veritable heads-on-a-tee like Tatsuya Mizuno (3-3) and those who lust to see the former PRIDE OWGP champ served-up such heads for entertainment, not sport.  “Cro Cop”, in an awkward performance, TKO’d Mizuno at :56 of round one.

And in the last of the three rings that made-up non tournament action at DREAM.1, Minowaman swung from half mount into a kneebar to submit overweight Korean Bum Chang Kang (1-2) at 1:25 of round one.

DREAM.2 follows on 29 April with the first round a a middleweight grand prix.

“Mo was excited,” Rusich said.  “He wants to get more MMA fights.  A win over Cro Cop would’ve been huge!”

“Mighty Mo” fights a K-1 kickboxing match versus Keijiro Maeda in Yokohama 13 April, but is undefeated in mixed martial arts versus softies.  “Cro Cop” would’ve been a leap forward.

“What they do is offer [Filipovic] three options.  We had the whole thing negotiated with K-1,” Rusich explained, “but, they came back and said Cro Cop turned down the fight.”

Agent Bas Boon has also alleged “Cro Cop” nixed DREAM.1 fights with his charges, “Demolition Man” Alistair Overeem (26-11) and Gokin Saki (0-1), who may have been the other two fighters in K-1′s original offer to Filipovic.

Boon hasn’t replied to my request for further explanation.

“Apparently he wanted James Thompson,” Rusich added.

“The Colossus” Thompson (14-8) has slept through the finale of seven of his eight losses, earning him a reputation for his glass jaw.  Thompson was laid out in just over two minutes in his last fight versus “The Grim” Brett Rogers (6-0) in EliteXC.

“Cro Cop” returns to Japan after a nosedive in the UFC, losing consecutive battles with “Napao” Gabriel Gonzaga (8-3) and Cheick Kongo (11-4-1).

DREAM, a K-1 MMA promotion, originally paired “Cro Cop” with “Kiss” Yoshihiro Nakao (6-1); but, Nakao dropped the fight without official explanation.

DREAM then dug up veritable head-on-a-tee Tatsuya Mizuno (3-2), whom Filipovic will take aim on today in Tokyo.

“My opponent will be Tatsuya Mizuno,” Cro Cop announced via his blog at http://www.mma-id.com/CROCOP.  “Although I announced Yoshihiro Nakao as my first opponent in DREAM, this fight is not going to happen.  I’m not familiar with reasons and I won’t be asking for any.”

Mizuno is a 3-2 Japanese judoka who’s only fought in Pancrase.  He’s bowed to any competition stiffer than a licorice stick.

Short-notice gives Mizuno little time to prepare for the Croatian kickboxer short of getting fitted for a neck brace, which one hopes was written into his contract gratis.

“The most important thing is that I’m going to fight on Saturday,” Cro Cop assured, unflustered by the change.

There was a time when the most important thing to the feared striker was proving himself against top competition in the sport; but, that has become but a DREAM.