Having watched Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” at the age of 10 Pavel immediately knew what he was going to do with a major chunk of his spare time for the rest of his life. An accomplished drummer, he immediately abandoned the sticks for a different kind of drumming – wearing boxing gloves in the ring.

Karate practice, still banned by a Soviet Union law at the time, did not begin until he was 12. His passion, hard work and flexibility (think Van Damme doing the splits on two chairs) got him a place on a select Karate Shotokan team training 3 hrs a day.

Around the age of 15 he saw a Kyokushin tournament on local TV, which became a true revelation and a turning point – it was to be full contact from then on. He’s currently a 1st Degree Black Belt, a finalist and prize winner in both national and local Kyokushin tournaments between 2002 – 20017 and a runner up in the Scottish Open Tournament in 2020 (veteran division).