Palatnikov is warm, engaging, humble and clearly smart – a far cry from the picture painted of him in his court hearing.

“It’s crazy that people can jump to conclusions so quickly when they haven’t met you. I don’t blame them, it’s a normal human trait,” he says.

“But it’s a super unfortunate situation. When an article like that pops up, it’s a bit of a shot in the gut. I’m like, ‘Man, I did my time’. You don’t get the full story. The victim comes in and tells his story. That’s what goes and nothing changes.”

The court heard that Palatnikov and a friend, Jesse Leigh James, attacked and robbed Australian James Dawson after forcing their way into his flat to recover a HK$10,000 debt in 2013. Dawson was kicked and punched by James while being held by Palatnikov, the court heard.

“If I go to court and enter a not guilty plea, the judge might not like that,” Palatnikov says, recalling the incident. “I took a guilty plea because that was my best option at the time.

“What I did was wrong, correct, but the extent of what’s been explained for that crime is not correct. Only three people on this planet know what actually happened. ”

Palatnikov admits the incident was the biggest mistake of his life; he describes it as a crazy situation that escalated and got out of hand.

“I was working a good job, it wasn’t like I was struggling to live or needed money, nothing to do with that,” he says. “It was me just trying to help someone out who I thought was struggling for money and was being treated badly. I was like, ‘Look, that’s not fair – if you’re owed money, you should be paid back’.

“I went in to collect a debt. It had nothing to do with me, he’d owed my friend for some time. The guy refused to do it, acting like he was a tough guy.

“They ended up getting in a fight. I broke it up. Next thing I know, this guy’s reporting unbelievable things.

“In my mind I was thinking nothing’s gonna happen. It’s between friends kinda stuff. And when the police showed up I was kinda like, ‘Woah’ – a little bit shocked.”

Palatnikov accepted the charges, thinking the punishment would not be so severe, but was sentenced to two years in prison.

“I couldn’t afford an expensive lawyer to fight these charges. It was his word against our word I just didn’t think it was true that this was actually gonna happen. I didn’t think jail was even an option,” he says.

“I can tell you all day long my side of the story, but it happened. I made a mistake, I have to live with it.”

After serving 16 months , Palatnikov was released in 2015.

“Going through that experience – to be honest it sounds ridiculous and maybe a little crazy – but it’s the best thing that happened to me in my life,” he says.

“Mentally I was not where I needed to be. I was a bit ignorant. I thought I was better than I was. I thought I knew more than I knew. It’s one of the lowest of lows you can go through. It’s a big fall from grace. Anyone that knew me would think, ‘Man, what he’s accomplished in his life up to that point, to go from that to this is wild.’

“That gave me the time to really work on myself. It was kind of like my second calling to university. I went there with a mindset of this is what I wanna read, this is what I wanna learn.”

Having read “maybe 10 books” in his life to that point, Palatnikov read over 300 in those 16 months in prison.

“I had nothing to worry about – phone bills, girlfriends, people,” he says. “I programmed my mind. I’m in a secret camp where no one else in the world is experiencing what I’m experiencing. So I have to do whatever I can every single day to get better.

“Whether it be get better at reading, better at math, better at anything, I just wanted to improve. I’d never played chess before. I went in there and got smoked every day at chess, and I hate losing. But I would watch, learn, understand why they were beating me. I got books and read about it – maybe six months later I started beating them. No one else cared, but me, personally I was pretty impressed, and thought, if I can do that I can do anything.”

He kept a journal and wrote down his goals for when he got out – and one by one they started to come true.

“Before that incident my mind was all over the place,” he says, though. “When I went in there everything was able to be controlled.

“I was able to put everything into that funnel. Everything was spilling over before. I focused my mind towards goals I set.”

Within a month of his release, Palatnikov went to the Philippines to compete in a jiu-jitsu competition, then packed his bags and moved to Florida to train at the famed Blackzilians team gym in Boca Raton.

“Rashad Evans was the first person to welcome me on the mats, that’s a guy I grew up watching and respect,” he says. “Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, Stefan Struve, Kamaru Usman, who’s now UFC welterweight champion, Luke Rockhold. All kinds of characters that when I was here as an amateur, they were top of the sport.

“I thought I could go out and get destroyed by all of them and realise this isn’t for me, that I’m not supposed to be a fighter.

“When you’re a new body and come in, they say, OK, let’s smash him. They don’t want you to come back. If you come back, then you get respect. I knew people were coming at me and I had to be on my game.”

The first day he showed up was sparring day, and he did seven rounds of five minutes.

“I just got about five of five straight killers – UFC guys, Brazilians, tough guys. But I was trading shots, giving shots. I felt like I belonged. I was OK after that sparring. I wasn’t too beat up.

“I continued to show up, and eventually you start to get respect. With respect comes that good feeling – coaches like Henri Hooft saying ‘good job, keep pushing’. You realise you can take punches from top 10 guys in the UFC and roll with them, that you’re just as capable.

“Wrestling was a big hole in my game, so having a bunch of wrestlers on your legs was a big help. It was like my fight university – I went to normal university for four years, then prison university for 16 months, then fight university in Florida. Three degrees, if you wanna put it that way.

“It set me up for where I am today. Maybe I never would have taken the leap.”

He returned to Hong Kong in 2018 with his girlfriend, initially just for two weeks on holiday to get his permanent ID renewed. But a friend put him in touch with local promotion Just MMA, who asked if he wanted to fight on their upcoming card.

In just his second professional bout, he pulled off a highlight reel knockout of South Korean Ko Seok-hyun, and a few days later was being represented by his opponent’s manager.

Now he lives in the city again working as a trainer at the Hybrid MMA gym in Central, coaching children and fighters of all ages and levels, with his eyes laser-focused on making it to the UFC within two years.

“This title shot is like a rising from the ashes kinda thing,” he says. “I’m sure most people counted me out at that moment in my life, and said, ‘This guy’s a bum, what happened to him?’

“Back then I cared what people thought. I had lots of friends, but you realise who sticks with you, who are your true people. You realise it doesn’t matter what they think, it’s what you’re doing.

“I didn’t wanna make that a negative. Everyone I saw in that place was sad and depressed, I thought why not just be positive through this, try to be happy.

“This world title is my chance at redemption. Look, it’s getting me on the SCMP talking about good things, last time I was on the SCMP it wasn’t good things. We make mistakes, but don’t judge people on their mistakes, judge them on how they bounce back from them.”

Palatnikov is now at peace and has no lingering anger over what happened.

“The world works in mysterious ways,” he says. “I don’t wish anything bad upon anyone, but I do believe in karma – what goes around, comes around.

“It’s in the past, just unfortunately it’s on the internet. I’m not gonna go back and complain and say this isn’t fair. I did my time, I wasn’t sentenced by the court to keep my name on Google for five years after it happened. Obviously that’s a super bummer in terms of my career but I’m hoping we can change that and move that down from people’s view. I don’t want people to see that as their first impression.”

Flying out to South Korea on Saturday ahead of his June 10 bout, Palatnikov has now come full circle with the chance to become Hong Kong’s first MMA world champion – and close that chapter on his past for good.

“This is something I’ve been working toward for a long time – no joke, 10 years,” he says. “To have this opportunity now is a very nice feeling – putting in that hard work, now letting it show.

“In this sport, even though it’s not super old, there’s a lot of history in it. If I can make a small little dent in that with my name somewhere on it, that’s great.

“To represent where I was born, what I consider home, to have Hong Kong on my back and that gold belt around my waist, that’s the ultimate combination.”