In his youth, Bukauskas played tennis and basketball, even moving across the world to pursue the latter, but every road led him back to fighting.
Once his heart issue was resolved, Bukauskas focused entirely on mixed martial arts – bar a short side quest aged 24 when he appeared on ITV dating show Take Me Out – and was signed by the UFC with a 10-2 record.
He won his first fight but slipped to three defeats in a row. He blew his knee out in a defeat by Khalil Rountree in 2021.
The UFC cut him afterwards and so began another difficult chapter in the life of the young Bukauskas.
“There was a lot of times just in my room, like within my four walls with my knee in a cast… a lot of times where it was very painful, drinking myself to sleep,” he explains.
Deep down, he knew this was not a sustainable path to sporting success.
“Obviously I’m not proud of that,” Bukauskas says.
“I guess you could say I’ve always been taught in the household to be mentally tough, so I never really looked at it like [I was depressed].
“It was my way of escaping the real world.”
Bukauskas hid the drinking from his father. He spent weeks in a dark place in his mind he had never been to before.
But his father and those closest around him were a constant source of reassurance, and Bukauskas re-emerged stronger.
“You just ride that wave,” he says.
“When you’re looking up at the mountain, you’re standing there at the bottom; obviously it looks quite daunting, but you make gradual steps.”