Pavel Zhuravlev (Ukrainian: Павло Журавльов, Pavlo Zhuravlov; Russian: Павел Журавлёв; born July 27, 1983) is a Ukrainian kickboxer and boxer. He is the former Interim GLORY Light Heavyweight Champion, the 2012 SUPERKOMBAT World Grand Prix Tournament Champion, the 2013 Legend Fighting Show -93 kg Tournament Champion and the K-1 World Grand Prix FINAL in Zagreb Semifinalist. As of February 2021, Zhuravlev is ranked the #4 light-heavyweight in the world by Combat Press. He first entered the Light Heavyweight rankings in October 2015.

Biography and career

Early career

After graduation from the Nakhimov Naval Academy in Sevastopol Zhuravlev is since 2010 lieutenant in the Ukrainian Navy. After winning various tournaments in the WBKF, a Russian kickboxing circuit, Pavel made his K-1 debut on August 2, 2009, at K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 in Seoul against Gokhan Saki and won by decision. On December 16, 2010, he took part in the 16-man tournament at KOK World GP 2010 in Moscow and went on to win the Grand Prix by defeating Prince Ali, Evgeny Orlov and Alexey Kudin.

SUPERKOMBAT

On October 1, 2011, Pavel Zhuravlev advanced to Superkombat World Grand Prix Final in Darmstadt, Germany, joining Sergei Lascenko and Ismael Londt. Zhuravlev won the third event of the series from Brăila, Romania, defeating Ricardo van den Bos and Sebastien van Thielen via unanimous decisions. He faced Saulo Cavalari in a non-tournament bout at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2012 in Tokyo final 16 on October 14, 2012 and won via unanimous decision. He won a unanimous decision over Freddy Kemayo on November 10, 2012, in Craiova, Romania at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix 2012 Final Elimination, which is the quarter-finals of the SuperKombat World Grand Prix 2012. He fought Benjamin Adegbuyi in the semi-finals at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix 2012 Final on December 22, 2012, in Bucharest and won the fight by KO after 25 seconds. In the final, Zhuravlev rematched Ismael Londt. This time the outcome was reversed as Zhuravlev became champion after extra round unanimous decision.

K-1 and FFC

Despite having not qualified for the tournament, Zhuravlev replaced Makoto Uehara to fight at the K-1 World Grand Prix FINAL in Zagreb on March 15, 2013, in Zagreb, Croatia. After defeating Cătălin Moroşanu by unanimous decision in the quarter-finals, he was eliminated by the eventual winner, Mirko Cro Cop, by the same margin in the semis. He earned first round TKO victory over Luca Panto at Final Fight Championship 3: Jurković vs. Cătinaș in Split, Croatia on April 19, 2013. He lost to Hesdy Gerges by unanimous decision at Final Fight Championship 6 in Poreč, Croatia on June 14, 2013. He won the -93 kg/205 lb tournament at Legend 2: Invasion in Moscow, Russia on November 9, 2013. After TKOing Sahak Parparyan in round one in the semi-finals, he was set to face Zabit Samedov in the final but Samedov was forced to withdraw due to a cut and was replaced by Agron Preteni. He also beat Preteni by TKO, this time in round two. He rematched Benjamin Adegbuyi at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix 2013 Final in Galați, Romania on December 21, 2013, losing by third round KO. Following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea Zhuravlev moved to Odessa and continued his career in the Ukrainian navy.

GLORY

Zhuravlev was expected to face Tomasz Szczepkowski at Legend 3: Pour Homme in Milan, Italy on April 5, 2014 but Szczepkowski withdrew for undisclosed reasons and was replaced by fellow Pole Michal Turynski two days before the fight. Zhuravlev defeated Turynski via majority decision. Zhuravlev faced Saulo Cavalari of Brazil in the headline event at Glory 43 Super Fight Series on July 14, 2017, at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Zhuravlev defeated Cavalari via unanimous decision (30–26, 30–26, and 29–27). Zhuravlev fought once in 2018, against Myron Dennis, during Glory 52. He won the fight by unanimous decision.

Other promotions

Pavel was scheduled to fight Iraj Azizpour on August 24, 2019. Azizpour was later replaced by Mehmet Ozer. He beat Ozer by a second round low kick TKO. Zhuravlev was set to take part in an FEA Heavyweight Grand Prix, in February 2021. Instead of taking part in the grand prix, he was scheduled to fight Cristian Ristea at FEA: Reset on March 13, 2021, for the FEA Heavyweight title. However, Zhuravlev pulled out of the fight citing a bicep injury. He was replaced by Kirill Kornilov.

Titles

Kickboxing

Boxing

Fight record

! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins Interim FEA Heavyweight Championship. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins Interim Glory Light Heavyweight Championship. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins Vacated FFC Light Heavyweight Championship (-95 kg). ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins Legend Fighting Show -93kg tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins the 2012 SUPERKOMBAT World Grand Prix tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins SUPERKOMBAT World Grand Prix III tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins KOK World GP 2010 in Moscow tournament. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Fight was for vacant World Kickboxing Network (W.K.N.) Muay Thai World title -96kg. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins W5 (+96 kg) World title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins W5 Grand Prix Heavyweight (-93 kg) tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins WBKF European Heavyweight (-93 kg) tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Retains WBKF World Super Heavyweight (+93 kg) tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Fight was for Warrior's Honor-3 tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins WBKF European Super Heavyweight (+93 kg) tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins WBKF World Super Heavyweight (+93 kg) tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Qualifies for Warrior's Honor-3 Final. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Win Warrior's Honor-2 tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins WBKF European Heavyweight (-93 kg) title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins Gladiators of Ukraine - Lviv K-1 Grand Prix tournament. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Qualifies for Warrior's Honor-2 Final. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Retains SNG (WBKF) Kickboxing Heavyweight (-93 kg) title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins SNG Thaiboxing Heavyweight (-91 kg) title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Fight was for WBKF World Heavyweight (-93 kg) title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins WBKF European Cruiserweight (86 kg) title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Fight was for Warrior's Honor-1 tournament title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Wins SNG (WBKF) Kickboxing Heavyweight (-93 kg) title. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Qualifies for Warrior's Honor-1 Final. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Fight was for Bigger's Better 13 tournament. ! style=background:white colspan=9 |Fight was for Bigger's Better 13 tournament.