Former Penn State wrestling national champion Anthony Cassar signed on with Fury Fighting Championships to continue his mixed martial arts career.
Cassar, who won the 2019 NCAA title at heavyweight in his lone full season as a starter with the Nittany Lions, is fully invested in his MMA career. To date, Cassar has one fight, a first round submission victory in December of 2022 on iKON FC 6.
But now, Cassar will have a bigger platform as Fury FC is broadcasting on the UFC Fight Pass platform.
Cassar was college teammates with Bo Nickal, a rising UFC superstar. Nickal is 5-0 in his MMA career, including 2-0 in the UFC following one of the greatest collegiate wrestling careers in history.
The two train together at American Top Team and are in each others corners for fights.
“I think coming in with our wrestling base is a huge advantage and there’s always that threat, and that’s going to continue to make the hands look even better and open up even more,” Cassar said, via UFC.com. “When I want to, I’ll just take them down and do what we want to on the mat. The plan is to really mess people up right away.”
A big heavyweight in college wrestling, Cassar fights in the light-heavyweight division (205 lbs.). However, he has his sights set on dominating 205 and the heavyweight division down the line.
“Just seeing the competitors and the size of the guys in the UFC and my body, it just seems like 205 makes sense for me right now,” Cassar said. “I already know what it takes to build up to that heavyweight body, so it’s nothing new to me. I figured why not dominate in two weight classes?”
Overall, Cassar’s wrestling background and style could dominate the MMA landscape.
“In wrestling, you can tell how somebody’s going to fight, in my opinion, based on their wrestling style,” Cassar said. “I think it translates a lot. Watch some of Ed Ruth’s old matches and it’s kind of the way he fights. You can go back and watch Bo’s. He was kind of ‘go for broke,’ and can go to his back and take high risks, just like in his last fight. I think my style is going to translate well. I’m pretty natural with my hands and I think that my explosiveness and my power is going to translate well.”
Cassar went 30-1 in 2018-19 to win the national title, including giving Minnesota’s Gable Steveson the only two losses of his college career. The lone loss for Cassar came to Oklahoma State’s Derek White, 3-2 loss in a dual, but he avenged it in the NCAA finals with a 10-1 major decision.
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