Pitt student Mary Casamassa looking to become Pittsburgh’s next world champion boxer

Mary Casamassa has a problem on her hands.

It has become such an issue that Jack Mook — the owner of Jack’s Boxing Gym in Ross who trains Casamassa — has created a term for it.

A 2018 Aquinas Academy graduate from Wexford, Casamassa is a 23-year-old boxer with a 2-0 professional record and an amateur mark of 12-2, which she has accrued since first stepping into a ring when she was 15.

The emerging concern for Casamassa and her team — a string of fights she was recently scheduled to take part in were unexpectedly canceled.

“We have three shows in a row where the girls just back out in the last second for ‘inexcusable excuses,’ that’s what I call it,” said Mook of his fighter who won the 2018 Pennsylvania Golden Gloves title in the 152-pound open division while she was a senior in high school.

Two of those fighters originally committed to bouts but backed out without citing reasons for canceling, while the other was “all ready and she didn’t get on her flight,” Casamassa said.

A strange coincidence?

Mook said he thinks it’s more likely some film got out on his fighter.

The rest is unfortunate history.

“I think Mary, right now, [many people] don’t know about her, but Mary is definitely top 10 in the world in my eyes,” Mook said. “Maybe the record doesn’t show it because she doesn’t have enough fights, but, then again, no one will fight us.”

In addition to her boxing career, Casamassa is graduating April 29 from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, where she has maintained a 3.55 GPA, with a degree in civil engineering.

“I haven’t been able to train because of finals,” she said. “It’s something that I feel like boxing is a big part of who I am. My first coach told me, ‘Some people are born to be fighters,’ and I think I really was born to do this.”

After she walks in Pitt’s commencement, Casamassa will be back in the ring training for her next professional fight.

“It’s something that makes me really, really happy,” she said of fighting. “I feel really at home doing it. I feel very much like I belong at my gym. I can say as a home-school kid I can feel like I have never really belonged somewhere outside my immediate family sometimes. It was really nice going there.”

A family affair

The youngest of John and Abby Casamassa’s six children, Mary followed her three brothers to the boxing gym.

The eldest of the Casamassa boys, John, now 34, joined his brother, Michael, now 33, and Robert, now 25, in starting their family’s love affair with boxing.

“I kind of grew up around it,” Mary said. “I have pretty early memories of running around the gym when they were training.

“I don’t think my dad wanted me to pick it up.”

Mary said she eventually started watching Ultimate Fighting Championship cards with her brothers. She then went to her father with a request to begin training as a fighter.

“I asked my dad, and eventually he came around to it, and I was off,” Mary said.

The young boxer’s propensity for success in the ring was apparent immediately.

“I never got scared with her because I could see right away, I have seen so much with my sons, that it was immediately apparent to me and her trainers that she was really good,” said Mary’s father, John. “She was so comfortable in the ring and just seemed to be so far ahead.”

Although she played soccer and football growing up and was a standout basketball player at Aquinas Academy, averaging 16 points per game as a senior, Mary said boxing’s grip upon her was always apparent.

“Speaking for myself it was pretty scary the first couple times, but I enjoyed the training so much,” she said. “Then when you win it’s such a great feeling and you feel so proud of yourself because if you overcome that fear, it’s that feeling of accomplishment.

“I didn’t win all of them,” she added, “but you still feel that sense of achievement that you didn’t let something that you were afraid of get the best of you.”

That includes her mother, who John said initially balked at watching Mary fight.

When she saw what the sport meant to Mary, however, the final member of the Casamassa family got on board with the sport.

“It’s a blessing to know what you want to do in life,” said John Casamassa of his daughter. “Most of us struggle for years trying to figure out what we are meant to do. Mary knows what she’s meant to do.

“I’m proud of her. Her mother is proud of her, although, her mother has a lot more difficulty watching her fights.”

Refining the process

After fighting in several amateur bouts, Casamassa said Western Pennsylvania boxing promoter Derek Gionta, the proprietor of Gionta Management LLC, originally introduced her to the idea of turning professional.

“He set up some amateur fights for me as well,” said Casamassa of Gionta. “He said, when is Mary going to go pro? She could really go pro. I thought, ‘Oh, this was a really great opportunity.’ I didn’t want to skip over it and spend the rest of my life thinking, ‘Whoa, what would’ve happened if I had turned pro?’”

That’s where Mook came in. He said John Casamassa initially brought his daughter to his gym and Gionta suggested they should work together.

“Right from the start I was like, ‘This girl is good,’” Mook said. “Just by the first time I’ve seen her shadowbox. She already had about five amateur fights at that time. It wasn’t many.

“She came, I watched her, I just put her on the program of the way I work out, and my style of fighting, and the relationship just kicked off,” he added. “She worked hard, and once I saw her in her first fight and I was like, ‘Oh, this girl is going to be a pro.’”

Gionta said he first watched Casamassa fight at amateur events around Western Pennsylvania “over the years.”

“She always, always was a skillful, disciplined fighter — very nice girl, she comes from an athletic family,” Gionta said. “She has a lot of the intangibles you want in an athlete. She lives a disciplined life, and that’s very important. A lot of people have obstacles in their life, and that keeps them from their potential.”

Mook said he has worked with his fighter over the past nearly six years to develop a standard boxing style, which is a staple of the fighters he trains.

“I want Mary to be a genius at every style,” he said. “If she understands every style that’s in front of her then she can counter attack.”

The 5-foot-9 boxer won her first professional bout on May 7, 2022, when she defeated Jozette Cotton by unanimous decision in a card at Murrysville SportZone Arena.

Casamassa’s second victory came July 2, when she defeated LeAnn O’Malley by technical knockout during an event at Washington County Fairgrounds.

“I’m a good counter puncher,” Casamassa said. “I’m more cerebral when I get in there. I prefer to try and set people up for things. Sometimes I’m aggressive, but a lot of times, I just try to let people make a mistake and I capitalize on that.”

Working with Mook on learning how to remain calm during fights has also been beneficial, Casamassa said.

“I still get nervous for fights, everyone does, but I’ve definitely got that aspect of it down better,” she said. “I used to get so wound up for the fights and upset. I’d be excited and I’d be terrified, and he’s good at keeping me at a much more even keel.”

The two professional victories speak for themselves, Mook said.

“She’s been crushing it at pro,” he said. “She’s 2-0, and nobody will fight us. I don’t know if they’ve seen video of her amateur fights or professional fights. We’ve had a difficult time getting her fights. You say you’re pro, let’s go.

“In my eyes, yes, they are scared.”

What’s next

Gionta said he is currently preparing an event for later this summer, which could feature as many as six to eight amateur bouts and one or two professional fights at the top of the card.

The hope is that Casamassa will have an opponent ready for her to face at that event, Gionta said.

“There’s not a lot of female professionals out there, so we are just looking to see who is willing and ready,” he said. “We’ve looked outside the country as well for some opponents. I think sooner or later we will get a little more opportunities here.”

Once that happens, the sky is the limit.

“She can definitely be a champion,” Gionta said. “She trains and spars with men. She’s a great puncher, very skilled.

“She’s had a pro style really since she got into the sport of boxing,” he added. “As long as we take the right steps and get her the right fights she can go all the way to the top.”

Mook couldn’t agree more.

“Mary has to build her record up and get fights under her belt,” he said. “The girls who are sort of in her class right now, just getting into this pro world, won’t fight us. I’m putting it out there, we will take on anybody. Mary is that good. Mary can beat anybody.”

No matter what happens, Casamassa will be enjoying the ride.

“It’s something that’s very, very fulfilling,” she said. “I’ve never had another experience like it in any other sport. It’s definitely a big part of who I am.”