Graham, Peter

Peter Graham was born on August 5, 1975 in Sydney .

Karate

At the age of eighteen, he began to actively engage in Kyokushin karate , immediately showed talent in this discipline, and six months later he won the tournament among the yellow belts. In 1999, when he was 23, he won the amateur championship of Australia and New Zealand in Kyokushin-karate, became the champion of the South Pacific region. For some time he went to Japan, where he lived and trained at the dojo under the supervision of recognized masters, however, after three months he was forced to return to Australia after his brother Matthew died from a heroin overdose. Because of this incident, his karate career slowed down, and he received his black belt only five years later ^[1] .

Kickboxing

Peter Graham was best known as a kickboxer . At the age of twenty-one at the same time as karate, he tried himself in this sport, performed quite successfully at the amateur level, participated in tournaments under the auspices of the World Kickboxing Federation, won a total of 17 opponents among amateurs without suffering a single defeat.

At the professional level, he made his debut in April 2000, his first opponent, compatriot Shane Wijon, won by TKO in the first round. After this fight, he signed a contract with the largest kickboxing organization K-1 and from that time began to actively participate in major international tournaments. In November of the same year, he suffered the first defeat in his career, from the most experienced Australian Stan Longinidis - the battle between them lasted ten rounds, and in the end all the judges unanimously gave the victory to Longinidis. In 2001, Graeme’s fights with New Zealander Mark Hunt , the future Pride and UFC veteran, are most notable. In the first fight, Graham was knocked out by him, but in the second he was able to win by a referee’s decision.

In March 2006, the famous fight between Peter Graham and the future kickboxing star Badr Hari took place . During the pre-match press conference, Hari behaved very defiantly, insulted Graham in every possible way and even arranged a fight. In the official duel between them in the third round, Graham effectively knocked out the Moroccan with his great kick in the jump, breaking his jaw in several places. Because of this injury, Hari in the end almost a year did not go into the ring ^{[3] [4]} . In the same year, Graham boxed with another eminent fighter, four-time K-1 champion from the Netherlands Sammy Schilt - the battle between them lasted all five rounds, and Schilt won by unanimous decision ^[5] .

In August 2007, a rematch between Graham and Hari was held - Graham tried several times to apply a firm kick with a reversal, but never hit an opponent, as a result, he won on points. Later, Peter Graham continued to enter the ring, fought with alternate success for several years. In 2014, he met Badr Hari for the third time at a tournament in Dubai and lost to him by technical knockout in the first round ^{[6] [7]} .

Mixed Martial Arts

After training with the famous Japanese fighter Akira Shoji , in 2008, Graham made his debut in MMA at the World Victory Road tournament in Japan, but in the first round he lost to the local fighter Kadzuiuki Fujite ^[8] . His career in mixed martial arts was not the best: from the first six fights in five, he was defeated - the reason for this was insufficient fighting skills - opponents easily transferred him to the ground floor and were forced to surrender using a painful or suffocating technique. This is how events developed, in particular, with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Rolles Gracie , who caught him in the “triangle with his hands”, and with Jim Yor from New Zealan , who used a choke on him from behind. Nevertheless, Graham gradually improved his wrestling skills, so for some time he trained in Brazil, having received a blue belt according to BZHZH, studied judo, having received an orange belt in this discipline.

Since 2010, a series of nine victories in a row has started, with Graham taking precedence over eminent fighters like Carter Williams , Yusuke Kawaguchi , Alexander Emelyanenko , Konstantin Glukhov (twice), Salimgerey Rasulov ^[9] . Thanks to a series of successful performances, he attracted the attention of a major American promotion Bellator MMA and made his debut here in 2013 with a unanimous victory over the American Eric Pryndl . He replaced the injured Vinicius Keyros in the final of the ninth season of the heavyweight grand prix and went out to fight with Cheyk Congo , losing by unanimous judicial decision. In 2014, he took part in the tenth season of the heavyweights grand prix, but in the quarter-finals he lost to Mighty Mo and choked out of the title fight, and then was fired from Bellator ^{[10] [11]} .

Subsequently, Graham fought several times in the tournaments of the Polish organization KSW , where, in particular, by technical knockout won the famous strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski ^[12] . He lost to the Russian sambist Denis Goltsov by using the “Kimura” pain , in 2016 at the 50th anniversary Fight Nights tournament in St. Petersburg, he was defeated by another sambo player from Russia, unbeaten former Bellator champion Vitaly Minakov - in the first round he applied the lever on his elbow ^{[13] [14]} .

Professional Boxing

Even at the dawn of his fighting career in 2000, Peter Graham tried his strength in professional boxing , however, he had no success in this sport - he lost in the first three matches, and in one was knocked out. However, after a significant break in 2012, he returned to boxing and won several titles: won and defended the title of champion of New South Wales in heavyweight, became the champion of Australia among professionals, in 2015 won the title of champion of the Asia-Pacific region according to the World Boxing Organization , in 2016 he became the world champion in the WBC version. He has eleven victories in his record, six of them are pre-term.

In 2008, Graham married Sylvia, a Brazilian woman living in Tokyo (he has a tattoo on her right arm with her name). The couple had a daughter, Nicole (the name of her daughter was tattooed on his chest) ^[15] . In 2010, Graham took part in the television show “Find My Family,” where he reunited with his younger brother, with whom he had long since lost touch and had not seen for more than 20 years. In 2012 he opened his own martial arts school Peter Grahams IMC in the city of Prospect, New South Wales .

• Peter Graham (Eng.) - statistics of professional fights on the site BoxRec
• Peter Graham (Eng.) - statistics of professional fights on the site Sherdog