Pavlo Ishchenko

Pavlo Ishchenko was born in 1992 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

Pavlo Ishchenko was born on April 30, 1992, in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia. He is Jewish, and his father Oleg, who is also Jewish, is his coach. He grew up in Kherson in southern Ukraine and attended the local Chabad there.

He boxed for Ukraine at the 2012 Summer Olympics and lost in the first round of the bantamweight event to Joseph Diaz of the United States. In 2013 he won gold as a lightweight at the European Amateur Boxing Championships. He took bronze at the 2015 European Games in Baku after withdrawing injured from his semifinal.

He competed for Ukraine until 2015 and had an amateur record of 294 wins and 23 losses. In February 2016 he beat Rafael Vazquez in New York City, bringing his professional record to 3-0. In 2017 he won the Israeli national lightweight title and a bronze medal for Israel at the European Amateur Boxing Championships.