Finding a purpose after graduation can be difficult. After four years of learning in a controlled environment, applying that knowledge to the real world can be confusing, frustrating or downright scary. This is doubly true for former student athletes who must also figure out how to integrate their sport and the lessons they learned from it into their daily lives and careers.
Michael Leandrou, a 2024 alumni of Hofstra University’s wrestling team, does not seem to have had these issues. Since graduating, Leandrou has been on the move, using his degree in exercise science and his experience as a wrestler and weightlifter as a personal trainer at InForm Fitness, a boutique fitness studio in Port Washington, New York.
“It’s what I love to do with exercise science,” Leandrou said. “[It’s] the reason I went to school in the first place. So, I’m there, and then after that … I’ll train at Longo’s … I’m training [my clients] in exercises like weightlifting. And then I’m training to fight.”
Outside of work, Leandrou puts in three hours of exercise daily at Longo’s MMA – a mixed martial arts (MMA) gym founded in part by Hofstra wrestling alum and 2013-2015 Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight champion Chris Weidman. Here, Leandrou has been preparing for his first amateur MMA fight on June 22. He trains hard and has discovered a newfound appreciation of MMA.
“[Longo’s] is a great spot to be. I love it. I’m loving the martial arts,” he said.
Leandrou credits his wrestling experience with developing the work ethic that motivates him to put in long hours at work and at the gym.
“I’m willing to work. I want to work,” Leandrou said. “You know, wrestling instilled that hard work ethic in me, so I’m willing to work as much as I can, get as many clients as I can. Hustle in my job and then hustle in the gym. I’m an active person. I can’t really sit around.”
Now a year removed from his final season with the Pride and with his whole life ahead of him, Leandrou reflected on his rocky beginnings at the start of his wrestling career in eighth grade.
“I was boxing before I was wrestling,” Leandrou said. “So, I go to my first wrestling match and I’m in like a boxing stance. I’m high up with a high stance, and I’m like feinting. I’m moving my head, and [my opponent] is looking at me like what is wrong with this kid?”
Despite his rough start, though, Leandrou fell in love with the sport.
“I liked that it was difficult. I liked that I had to push myself – to rely on myself,” Leandrou said. “I liked that [in wrestling] if I lost it was on me; if I won, it was on me. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, you know, it’s the best feeling and the worst feeling in the world.”
This self-reliance has informed many of Leandrou’s goals for the near future. First, he intends to take on a more active role at InForm Fitness.
“I’d like to take my job as far as I could take it,” Leandrou said. “I’d like to, you know, expand my business … I’d like to build up my clients and then take it over one day.”
Second, Leandrou hopes to see some success as a professional fighter. “Hopefully [I] could be fighting on the professional level in five years as well,” Leandrou said. “That would be, like, the ideal scenario right now … hopefully make it pro, get some good wins.”
Leandrou recognizes how lofty this goal is and how much hard work it will take, but he feels his background wrestling for the Pride uniquely prepares him to accomplish it.
“Being a collegiate athlete and a college wrestler, you just learn how to roll with the punches,” Leandrou said. “Like if something goes wrong today, you know, you just kind of keep moving with it.”
He also spoke from a more pragmatic perspective on wrestling. “Years of wrestling experience, you know, it makes a big difference, [it] helps a lot when you’re on the ground,” Leandrou said, “I could just sit on top of people all day.”
Leandrou reflected on his athletic journey and imparted some advice for athletes at the start of their careers.
“If you love it just do as much of it as you can. Make it your priority,” Leandrou said. “Don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself; just have fun. That’s what it’s about: just keep on taking it one step at a time. Don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself and just have fun with things. I know sometimes you just can’t. Sometimes there’s just too much pressure on you, but try to love the good things about it.”
