This Saturday, Cage Warriors 211 takes place in Rome, where Italian prospect Giuseppe “The Demon” Mastrogiacomo fights in his first co-main event. The 24-year-old will take on 7-2 Alexis Tsarmantidis, who is currently riding a three-fight win streak.
While Tapology shows just a single MMA fight as an amateur, Mastrogiacomo’s striking background is much more than that. His Instagram shows that he also competed in amateur kickboxing, and he has loads of taekwondo experience as well.
Just over a year after his only amateur MMA fight, Mastrogiacomo had his first professional fight. Surprisingly, he started off his pro career with two wins via RNC. Mastrogiacomo won another fight, making his record 3-0, and then he was signed to Cage Warriors. Over three years fighting under the Cage Warriors banner, Mastrogiacomo has won six fights and lost one, with four of those wins coming via KO/TKO. His one loss came by submission against Aiden Lee, and it happened right in the middle of those six wins. Mastrogiacomo is currently on a three-fight win streak, in which he scored a good win over the undefeated Elton Armindo.
If it isn’t obvious based on his background, Mastrogiacomo does his best work on the feet. He is a good-sized featherweight, standing at 5’9”, and fights out of Aurora Mixed Martial Arts in his home country of Italy. Mastrogiacomo is a flat-footed striker and is surprisingly light on his feet for how he stands. He will start fights out of either stance, but spends most of his time in orthodox. With his taekwondo background, it makes sense that he gets to kicking early and often.
Whether Mastrogiacomo is on the front foot or moving backwards, his kicks set everything up. He will kick to all three levels, but most of them are going to the legs and body. When he does go up top with a kick, it is usually a spinning wheel kick. It isn’t a Mastrogiacomo fight if he doesn’t spin, regardless of if it is a kick or backfist. He does switch stances, but out of southpaw, Mastrogiacomo is more often than not kicking. In that more-comfortable orthodox stance is when he will let his hands go.
His hands aren’t nearly as tidy as his kicks, but man, are they fast. He has a great jab, which I believe is his best strike, and it pairs very well with his kicks. Other than the jab, when Mastrogiacomo is throwing his hands, it is never just one shot. After kicking and jabbing at range, he will find moments to blitz in and unload combinations with his hands.
Up until his fight against Itay Tratner, I wasn’t very impressed with his hands. Early on in his career, it felt like he was doing a lot of leaping into range with big overhands. This led to a lot of over-swinging, but he was able to get away with it due to his speed. More recently, I have definitely seen an improvement in Mastrogiacomo’s hands. I don’t think he has become some elite boxer, but the combinations look a lot smoother recently, and he has been working the body much better.
Striking defense is the area on the feet where Mastrogiacomo lacks the most. Oddly enough, I think he does a better job moving his head when he is in tight, trying to land punches. At range, his striking defense is mainly trying to just slide backwards out of range, but since he stands flat-footed, he is liable to taking some shots.
As for grappling, other than the back-to-back submissions in his first two professional fights, there isn’t anything to speak about offensively. Mastrogiacomo wants his fights to take place on the feet. While his sole loss came via submission, his takedown defense is actually pretty solid. Up against the cage, he does a good job fighting for underhooks and really doesn’t get taken down from here.
The few times he was successfully grounded, it was because an opponent caught a kick and tripped him. Even then, Mastrogiacomo doesn’t stay on his back long and does a good job getting back to his feet. Aiden Lee was able to take his back standing, and from there, Mastrogiacomo couldn’t fight off the rear naked choke. From what we have seen so far, his cardio has held up well. Obviously, given a striking fight, he will be able to do it all day, but even against Seyed Mousavi, he defended a lot of takedowns and still found the finish in round three.
His opponent is coming in hot on a three-fight win streak and with two finishes in a row, but I think Mastrogiacomo extends his own win streak. Mastrogiacomo is going to be the faster puncher, and I see his left body kick from southpaw doing a lot of good work. If he can score another finish on Saturday, hopefully they get Mastrogiacomo back in there with another notable name for his next fight.
