Paul Abel has been training various martial arts since 1983 when he started boxing as a teenager. In 1993 he discovered Muay Thai and fought several matches using both amateur and professional rules. He has trained consistently since then and has taught various successful Thai boxing programmes.

In 1994 Paul joined the legendary Grappling Arts Academy and started his ground training under the tutelage of Sylvain Mulroney. Paul trained and fought as a serious competitor, winning challenge matches, club, regional and later international titles. In 1996, in an effort to train with, and expose more people to, the best grapplers in the world, Paul and Syl started a company whose sole purpose was to run grappling seminars. This allowed Paul the unique opportunity to train privately with legends such as the Machado brothers and Gokor Chivichyan.

With the closure of the Grappling Arts Academy, Paul continued his training with Danny Mulroney at the Bravado Jiu-Jitsu Academy. In January 2005, Bravado became part of the Royler Gracie/ David Adiv association.

In November 2005, Paul became an RGDA representative and a student of David Adiv. Paul travels to David’s academy in New Jersey 3-4 times a year to train privately with David, as well as in his academy. Paul has had the privilege to teach for David on several occasions.

David and Royler come to Canada several times per year to teach and inspire their students. Paul takes the opportunity to train  with each of them for the duration of their stay. In June of 2007, at David’s academy in New Jersey, Royler Gracie and David Adiv promoted Paul Abel to the rank of black belt. Paul is the first Canadian to be promoted to black belt by Royler and/or David.