Recognition from the Ring  

Arty Garritano (right) is a junior business major. Photo provided by Cage Wars.

ALBANY, N.Y. (May 1, 2018) — Arty Garritano spends much of his free time in a cage.

The junior business major balances coursework with his passion: Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He won his most recent fight at the Cage Wars 35 in Albany on Jan. 27.

“The feeling of winning was unfathomable,” he said. “I jumped on top of the cage in excitement, and could hear my friends and family cheering for me.”

Taking a Stand Against Bullies

Garritano said a conversation with his dad about being bullied inspired him to learn how to fight when he was 13.

“In that conversation, my father asked me what I wanted to do,” he said. “I said I wanted to be strong.”

Competing throughout high school, he won his first kickboxing fight he was 16. After training intermittently throughout his freshman year of college, he said he began to start training seriously again last summer with coaches in Colonie and in Long Island.

Garritano said he trained four hours a day, six days a week in the months leading up to the fight, but that the effort paid off.

“It was hard, but every day that I moved forward, the better I remembered how much I loved the sport,” he said.

Balancing coursework

His advice in for managing school with athletics? Strong time management.

“As long as you don’t let the days go to waste and you write down the things you need to complete for the day, you should be able to get it done,” said Garritano, who’s pursuing a business degree with a concentration in finance and marketing.

Beth DuFault, Garritano’s professor in consumer behavior, said she is impressed by his accomplishments, as a fighter as well as a student.

“The commitment and perseverance required for successfully juggling classes with the physical and mental challenges of high level sports is intense -- --and rare,” she said. “I strongly feel that the unique character-building and leadership aspects of combining sports and academics carries over into career and life in general in wonderful ways.”

Garritano said his involvement in the campus Stock Exchange Club, and mentorship from his professors in the School of Business such as DuFault, has prepared him well for the future.

“I know I’ll be well-suited to start studying corporate law upon graduation,” he said, saying his post-graduate plans include traveling abroad, continuing to train and fight and preparing for law school.

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