Inside the Octagon, there is only one language – fighting. Top UFC heavyweight Sergei Pavlovich has had a lot to say with incredible displays of violence through an unrelenting approach to fighting. With 15 knockouts in his 21-fight career, all in the first round, Sergei Pavlovich embodies the language of physical violence.

But what about the language of his speech? With a name like Sergei Vladimirovich Pavlovich, we can safely assume that the #4 ranked heavyweight is Russian. But what languages does he speak? Is he bilingual or does he only speak the language of the motherland? Let’s take a closer look.

Sergei Pavlovich’s language

The 32-year-old heavyweight star was born on May 13th, 1992 in the village of Orlovsky, located in the Russian province of Rostov Oblast. The 18-3-0 UFC heavyweight started with Greco-Roman wrestling at age five, and his practice of the sport would last up till 12th grade. Thereafter, in the army, he picked up Combat Sambo, and thereafter began competing the in famed Russian martial art/sport.

Being the physical specimen he is, he was invited to train with the Russian Olympic team but declined due to his love for competing in Combat Sambo. He even is a Wushu Sanda gold medalist in the 90 kg (198 lbs) category.

Being a native of Russia, and having served in the country’s army, he is fluent in Russian. However, does the #4-ranked heavyweight speak any English? Let’s take a closer look.

Does Sergei Pavlovich speak English?

Being a man of few words, it’s hard to ascertain whether Sergei Pavlovich speaks English or not. Moreover, he’s usually accompanied by an interpreter in press conferences or Octagon interviews. Besides a few words here and there, the Russian heavyweight star does not speak English. And it was this lack of knowing the language that saw him land in a bit of controversy.

The UFC heavyweight mistakenly shared a racially offensive meme on his X profile. The meme had a picture of him in the middle with many traits written all around his picture in English. Pavlovich cannot read or speak in English so he shared it without checking for anything offensive. There were nice words like, “best heavyweight boxer in ufc,” but there were racially offensive words like, “ki** black people.”

This resulted in a huge backlash but later Pavlovich came forth to reveal that he did not understand the full context of the meme which he did not create. He clarified that he did not subscribe to any of the words written and removed the post from his X account. He said, “Due to the language barrier, I did not understand the weight of the things written about me. Posted by mistake and do not subscribe to the things said about me. The meme was not made by me. Peace for everyone.”

So it can be safely assumed that he only speaks Russian and is not fluent in English. Sergei Pavlovich fights this weekend at UFC Saudi Arabia against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in the featured bout of the main card. Do you think he will win against ‘Bigi Boy’? Share your thoughts in the comments below.