Novachkov has a background in Wrestling and has competed in many Freestyle Wrestling and American Folkstyle tournaments. Moving to America with his family when he was still a kid, he would continue his training there in the form of folkstyle while in school. Being a very undersized and frail kid, he was below the minimum weight class for his first year of highschool in the USA, but his coach Bobby Soto described Novachkov as being one of the most talented wrestlers he had ever seen. Even though he missed his first year in wrestling, he would capture California State title the following year.

Finishing his highschool career with a record of 145-21, he would go on to wrestle for the Cal Poly Mustangs, where he studied biokinetics and had a great career going 87-19 overall with a record of 22-7 in duel meets. At the end of his college career he felt completely burnt out and lost his passion for wrestling, but after meeting with Valentin Jordanov, president of the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation, he was inspired to continue fighting in freestyle wrestling for his native homeland of Bulgaria. Some of his achievements include winning 2 medals, a bronze and silver at the European Wrestling Championships, a bronze and silver at the NCAA Division 1 Championships, 8th place at the 2016 Olympics, 2011 Cal Poly Male Athlete of the Year award, 2 gold medals at the Missouri Open and Las Vegas Invitational tournaments, and multiple gold medals at the California State Championships, and American National Junior Greco-Roman and Freestyle Championships.