Sherdog Prospect Watch: Nick Piccininni

If mixed martial arts organizations had formal scouting departments, they would likely be climbing over one another to get to Nick Piccininni.

The 27-year-old East Setauket, New York, native has made a successful transition from amateur wrestling to MMA, as he holds a perfect 4-0 record with three wins via submission. Prior to his move to full-contact fighting, Piccininni starred in the singlet. He compiled a ridiculous 226-3 record at Ward Melville High School, where he won four state championships in four different weight classes. Those exploits were enough to draw the attention of the powerhouse Oklahoma State University program. Piccininni went on to become a three-time NCAA All-American and four-time Big 12 Conference champion with the Cowboys, finishing fourth nationally in 2017 and fifth in 2019. He was thought to be a national title contender in 2020—until the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the remainder of his senior season. Piccininni ended his career at Oklahoma State with a 112-17 record.

Soon, MMA beckoned.

“I was surrounded by it and always had an interest,” Piccininni told The O’Colly. “It was intriguing. I was looking to go down a different path. I love wrestling and want to give back, but deep down in my heart, I knew I wanted to do something different. I took some boxing and jiu-jitsu classes when I was in high school, but I’ve always loved MMA. I always thought that in the back of my mind I would do MMA—even if it was going down the Olympic route and then MMA.”

Piccininni undertook formal training at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, then relocated to Fortis MMA in Dallas. All the while, he went about establishing himself as one of the top flyweight talents in the sport. Piccinni posted consecutive victories over Chancey Wilson, Joseph McCormick and Shawn Gustafson in the Xtreme Fight League organization before graduating to Fury Fighting Championship. He made his promotional debut opposite Victor Gonzalez—a 31-year-old journeyman who referred to him as a “spoon-fed wrestler” in the days ahead of their bout—as part of the FFC 83 undercard on Sept. 17 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It did not go well for Gonzalez.

The brighter lights and bigger stage only seemed to embolden Piccininni. He sprawled on two ill-advised takedown attempts from “Del Fuego” and assaulted him with ground-and-pound throughout a woefully one-sided first round, where he escaped an armbar, progressed to full mount on multiple occasions and opened a crescent-shaped cut above his counterpart’s right eye with volleys of punches and elbows. An arm-triangle choke at the conclusion of Round 1 was a harbinger of what was to come. Piccininni forced the Texan into an immediate state of retreat at the start of the middle stanza, as he stepped into a crisp right hand, followed it with a pair of jabs and backed him to the fence. From there, he dumped Gonzalez to the mat, applied his ground-and-pound and climbed to mount yet again, meeting with little resistance as he did so. Piccininni then framed another arm-triangle, tightened his squeeze and drew out the white flag.

Afterward, the blue-chip prospect shifted gears toward what appears to be an exceedingly bright future in four-ounce gloves.

“Right now, I’m just building,” said Piccininni, who likely entered 2024 on the radars of every major mixed martial arts company in the world. “Obviously, I’m working on the skills that I have now. I’ve got to go back to the drawing board and clean some things up. Just get better and keep on climbing from here. Then everyone will know.”