Megaludis/Yatsenko Added to RAF 02 Card

The RAF 02 card got some more Penn State flavor this evening as another matchup was announced involving a former Nittany Lion star. 2016 NCAA champion, Nico Megaludis, will take on Ukraine’s Andriy Yatsenko in the bantamweight class (135 lbs).

Megaludis was a four-time NCAA All-American for Penn State, finishing second as a freshman and sophomore, before taking third as a junior, and then going out on top of the 125 lb weight class as a senior. Though Megaludis was a three-time national finalist, he never captured a Big Ten title. He was a runner-up in each of his final two seasons. He finished with a 119-19 career record for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State won NCAA titles in all four years where Megaludis was the starter.

After college, Megaludis made two US Open finals - and won the 2022 tournament. Earlier this year, he won three matches at the 2025 Open; however, he suffered a loss to the current RAF bantamweight champion, Nathan Tomasello. Megaludis also participated in the 2024 Olympic Trials.

His opponent, Yatsenko,  is a 2017 world bronze medalist at 57 kg. Yatsenko was one of the best Cadet wrestlers of his era. He earned three medals at the Cadet World Championships - two of the golden variety. Also at the age group level, Yatsenko was a U23 European champion in 2019.

At the 2017 World Championships, Yatsenko fell in the opening round to Thomas Gilman, 5-2. He then battled back through repechage to earn his world medal.

Within the last two years, Yatsenko was a silver medalist at the 2023 Rankings Series event in Egypt and won the 2024 Dan Kolov/Nikola Petrov Tournament. 

With the addition of this match, the October 25th event at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center now looks like this:

Bantamweight (135 lbs) - Nico Megaludis vs. Andriy Yatsenko

Welterweight (165 lbs) - James Green vs. Tajmuraz Salkazanov

Welterweight (165 lbs) - David Carr vs. Amr Reda

Cruiserweight (190 lbs) - Kyle Dake (champ) vs. Boris Makoev

Women’s Flyweight (120 lbs) - Helen Maroulis vs. Samantha Stewart

Open - Keelon Jimison vs. Cayden Henschel

Heavyweight (Unlimited) - Patrick Downey III vs. Jake Varner

Bantamweight (135 lbs) - Nathan Tomasello (champ) vs. Roman Bravo-Young

Heavyweight (Unlimited) - Mason Parris vs. Aleksandr Romanov