Yakov Grigorievich Punkin (Russian: Яков Григорьевич Пункин; 8 December 1921 – 12 October 1994) was a featherweight Greco-Roman wrestler from Ukraine.

At the onset of World War II in 1941 he joined the Soviet Army, but was soon captured by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in German prisoner-of-war camps: until summer 1942 in Emsland, in 1942–1945 in Osnabrück, and later in 1945 near Magdeburg.

Throughout those year Punkin posed as a Muslim Ossetian man,[3] hiding his Jewish origin, else he would be shot much earlier than many of his cellmates.

After retiring from competitions he worked as a wrestling coach in his native city of Zaporizhzhia.

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