After spending most of my childhood and early teen years as a dumpy, fat and awkward kid, I started weight training at the age of 17 as a way to stop being such a pudgy bastard. At 21, after a significant change in physique and a brief and disastrous stint in the Canadian Armed Forces, I began a seven-year stint as a competitive powerlifter.
During the early-to-mid nineties I notched victories in several regional contests under the tutelage of my coach and good friend Dave Hoffman, also bagging a silver medal at the Canadian Junior Powerlifting Championships where I set a national record in the deadlift.
At the age of 23, an extremely early mid-life crisis spurred me to move out of my hometown of Kitchener, Ontario and, with a boatload of financial help from good friends Carlos Leal and Kristel Vines, enlist in Calgary's Hart Brothers Pro Wrestling Camp. There I trained in the grappling arts under instructors Lance Storm and Chris Jericho, after which I wrestled on-and-off for the next ten years. While I would never make a dime in professional wrestling, I did get to travel to every province from Quebec to British Columbia, and also wrestle extensively throughout the USA, England and South Africa.
After a year in Calgary I returned to Kitchener, and in 1995, shortly after notching a third-place finish at the Canadian Strongman Championships, I began working as "Death Wolf" in the Detroit-based Insane Championship Wrestling promotion. There I met talent agent Phyllis Lee, who urged me to apply for entry into a Japanese organization known as "Pancrase". At the time, Pancrase was the best-established mixed martial arts (MMA) organization in the world, with a roster that boasted such future stars as Bas Rutten, the Shamrock brothers, Maurice Smith and Guy Mezger. Despite having no competitive fighting experience I submitted my application, and to my overwhelming shock it was accepted.
On Feb. 22, 1997 I became the first Canadian ever to fight in Pancrase, facing the massive Ryushi Yanagisawa at Tokyo Bay NK hall before ten thousand spectators. I was decisively beaten in a thirteen-minute battle, but was still quickly invited back to face world champion Masakatsu Funaki the next month.
After losing to Funaki via a Kimura armlock that tore my bicep in half, I lived and trained at the Pancrase dojo in Yokohama for several weeks, and would fight twice more before a falling out with Phyllis spelled an end to my less-than-illustrious career in Japan.
In early 1998, after two fights in the Dallas-based World Pankration Council, I once again left Kitchener and headed west, this time to Vancouver. Wanting to take one last crack at making it as a pro wrestler, I hooked up with the Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling promotion and changed my ring name to Leviathan. Joining hardcore wrestling pioneer Dr. Luther (Lenny Olson) and promising rookies Abaddon (Akiva Maas) and Incubus (Bob Marlowe), I became part of the "Army of Darkness", a group that was quickly established as one of the top draws in the Pacific northwest wrestling scene.
In late 1999 I realized that I would ascend no further than the indie level of wrestling, and co-founded the Wrestle-Plex pro wrestling school as an attempt to find another way to make a living out of the business. However, differences of opinion between myself and my partner quickly spelled an end to that venture, and after selling my half of the school I rededicated myself to fighting. MMA was still illegal in Canada so in its place I took up Muay Thai kickboxing, and on September 9, 2000, in only my third Muay Thai match ever, I TKO'd Ontario's Rick Leucer to win the CMTA Canadian superheavyweight title.
Just prior to that bout I made the acquaintance of James "Bam Bam" Bamford, a stunt performer/coordinator who, amongst many other things, had doubled "X-Files" star David Duchovny. Together with fellow coordinator Dean Choe, Bam Bam brought me into the business and gave me my first opportunities as a stunt performer. On Dec. 20, 2000 I cut my teeth on the action series "Freedom", which unfortunately resulted in a smashed orbital bone and permanently damaged vision. A few months later I was back in action, however, and have continued to work as a stuntman and actor right up to the present day.
While pursuing my film career I continued martial arts training under instructor and close friend Chris Franco, and stepped back into the ring for occasional Muay Thai matches. Two non-title bouts and a successful defense against Toronto's Kirk Jones were followed by a 2003 title unification bout against WKA Canadian champion Nick Penner. Happily, (and despite the horrendous beating that Penner laid on me) I won a unanimous decision over Penner to become the undisputed Canadian Muay Thai champion.
That year would prove to be the best one of my life, as I worked non-stop on blockbusters such as "I, Robot" and "The Chronicles of Riddick" and also met the woman who would become my wife, former WWE diva Marianna Komlos. However, we would be together for barely a year before breast cancer and medical malpractice claimed her life on September 26, 2004, just six days after our wedding.
As a way of dealing with the loss of Marianna I rededicated myself to training, and in May of 2005 I returned once more to the ring. By that point MMA was legal in British Columbia, so I signed to battle Jiu-jitsu fighter Paul Daniel for the vacant NFC Canadian MMA title. Once again I won by unanimous decision, garnering both my first MMA win and my first MMA title in the same fight.
Shortly afterward I joined Vancouver's Elite Fighting Championships to provide ringside commentary for their pay-per-view MMA events. This led to my good buddy Greg Allen getting me an audition with the bodogFIGHT organization, for whom I would provide play-by-play, colour commentary and expert analysis on shows in Canada, the USA, Russia and Costa Rica. During that time I called the action for Kimbo Slice's first-ever cage fight in Atlantic City, the historic Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Lindland match in St. Petersburg, Russia, and several shows held by Calgary's Hardcore Championship Fighting.
At the time of this writing I'm currently involved with The Score sports network's "Score Fighting Series" and am a weekly featured guest on Sirius radio's "The Fight Show with Mauro Ranallo" in a segment entitled "The Lazenby Chronicles". I also serve as the resident MMA expert for CFOX FM, one of Vancouver's highest-rated radio stations.
It has been my honour and privilege to be one of those championing the cause of MMA in Vancouver during its two-year ban from 2007 to 2009, and I'm currently involved in helping to form an amateur sanctioning body for the sport in British Columbia. At present I look forward to helping the sport to grow and develop into the future, in addition to continuing to work in Vancouver's film and television industry.
PAUL LAZENBY COMMENTARY DEMO
PAUL LAZENBY FILM & TV RESUME
