From Left to Right, James Lledo, Geoff Magin, Lucas Seibert, and Mke Wilkins at Stout PGH in the Strip District.
Wrestling is a huge part of a mixed martial artist’s repertoire. If fighters don’t grow up on the mats, they invest time to enhance this part of their game.
“The two pathways in wrestling post-college are coaching or competing, looking to make an Olympic and World team,” said Mike Wilkins, a professional MMA fighter and trainer at Stout PGH. “Mixed martial arts provide a great avenue for them to continue to use their craft.”
Three fighters from Stout — James Lledo, Geoff Magin and Lucas Seibert — represent a new guard of wrestlers who simultaneously trained or competed in both disciplines.
On Saturday, the trio of wrestlers from local colleges will compete at Monroeville Convention Center for 247 Fighting Championships’ “Brawl in The Burgh 17.”
“It’s huge for us to be able to get these amazing athletes who have dedicated themselves in crafting a new outlet to putting their skills on display,” said Hunter Homistek, general manager of 247 Fighting Championships.
Lledo (2-0) and Magin (3-1) are redshirt sophomores at Pitt. They both took a fight before competing in the USA Wrestling Nationals U23 trials in May.
With some downtime in their schedule before the wrestling season restarts, their day consists of lifting weights in the morning, class in between, wrestling practice in the afternoon and working at Stout PGH in the Strip District at night.
“I think for any other college athlete or college student, they do summer internships for their future career after sports,” said Lledo, a Lower Merion native. “We’re setting ourselves up for the future and getting a jump start on what we want to do when wrestling’s over.”
Lledo is excited about continuing to the next level of his career. His final fight at the novice level of amateur MMA is against Manuel Bell (0-1). Novice fights consist of three two-minute rounds with restrictions on ground-and-pound fighting.
“It’s weird taking someone down and not being allowed to punch them,” said Lledo. “My last fight would have been over quickly. Now (the novice stage) will be over. I’m excited.”
His teammates are in the advanced stage, where fights have three 3-minute rounds.
Magin, a Quaker Valley graduate, did a year of college wrestling at Franklin & Marshall before the covid-19 pandemic. He took a year away from school, opting against online classes.
“I started here at Stout, did three fights,” Magin said. “I lost my last one because I was not good at wrestling.”
He returned to school to improve his wrestling and transferred to Pitt.
“The wrestling program is really good, especially since the upper weights are tough,” Magin said. “We had a national champion at 197 (Nino Bonaccorsi), and the room was full of savages. You can’t help but get better at wrestling.”
Magin will take on Ohio’s top MMA prospect, Nick Nash (5-0), for the vacant light heavyweight championship.
From Westerville, Ohio, Seibert (4-0) walked on at West Virginia. He couldn’t get the amateur fights while competing in college wrestling, but he did begin his training during that time and aims for the highest level of his new career.
“I always shoot for the stars,” said Seibert. “I shot for Division 1, and I’m gonna shoot for the UFC.”
He graduated in May and moved to Pittsburgh three days later, committing full-time to MMA. His next fight, against former 247 bantamweight champion Cameron Allgeier (6-1) for the vacant featherweight championship, will be a year after his debut.
“My whole MMA career has been developing under Stout, and it’s coming full circle,” said Seibert. “I had a picture of Cam’s belt on my phone when I decided to fight in MMA.”
Of the 15 scheduled fights Saturday, 14 will be amateur bouts. And 247 Fighting Championships will hold a grappling supercard the night before, featuring some of the world’s best Brazilian jiujitsu competitors.
Wilkins, a Woodland Hills and Waynesburg graduate, will be in the corner for five MMA matches and 10 grappling contests over the two days. He’s confident he will go undefeated as the corner man Saturday.
“I just really love training these guys,” Wilkins said. “They come in with a good base and attitude to work and want to get better.”