Long before the head tattoos and prosthetic angel wings, the man formerly known as Malcolm Schuyler hated fighting.
He did, however, love anime.
There weren’t many signs for what was about to happen on a fateful night in November 2022.
He had already dropped out of high school, trying his hand at breakdancing before earning certification in web design from Lancaster County CTC, still feeling unfulfilled.
“I was feeling sad and depressed because I felt worthless,” he said. “I had this prayer, and I imagined myself on a stage. It’s crazy, I can remember it in such detail.
“It really was this divine call to start fighting.”
As he sometimes puts it, that night he flipped a coin between “terrorism or MMA.” And the “coin” landed on mixed-martial arts, birthing the fighting persona of “WingedC.”
What sprouted from that night was a costume-wearing, clip-creating, highlight-making force in the mixed-martial arts world, one that goes beyond the thrills of a fight and to near-pro-wrestling levels of obsession with arcs, character, aesthetics and entertainment.
WingedC already possessed a strong wrestling base. His father Pete was an All-American at Juniata and former head coach at Franklin and Marshall, while his brother Cortlandt was a two-time district champ at Manheim Township before twice qualifying for NCAAs at Lehigh. The younger Schuyler sibling had been a strong wrestler for the Blue Streaks as well before dropping out.
Still, he had never thrown a strike before.
Mimicking YouTube videos and using a mattress as a punching bag, he found the unsanctioned fighting promotion Street Beefs’ Facebook page, where he signed his name and weight and was told to show up at an address in Winchester, Va., in February of 2023.
He made his debut fighting “T-Nasty” surviving an early blow to earn a draw.
“I didn’t know how to throw a punch for [expletive]. My jabs were the weakest mother[expletive] thing ever. Then I got dropped by a right hand and rebooted like Windows. And I [expletive] body lock him and take him down. It was kind of funny.”
Relying heavily on his grappling at first, it took a couple of fights for WingedC to hone in on his character.
“I was like, ‘What do anime characters have?’” WingedC said. “They’re iconic. I had a bandana. I always had a bandana since I started fighting. But I wanted to go a little bit cooler than that.”
“Then, the wings were put on. I should have had them as soon as I was WingedC. But finding wings that were small enough was lowkey kind of hard.”
As he continued on Street Beefs, his fame slowly began to rise. He says he first noticed his fights gaining steam when he fought “Sneaky Sander” and unleashed a drop kick.
All through his fighting, he’s continued to develop skills — he says he’s still a blue belt “and barely that” in jiu jitsu, but has taken karate and kickboxing fights.
As his name grew — and his personality with it, adding a black-and-red headband-like tattoo around his forehead, as well as increasingly elaborate entrances — so did his opportunities.
“I burned the boats on normal life,” he told MMA reporter Ariel Helwani in a viral interview.
Documenting everything on his YouTube channel — boasting 21.4k subscribers — the fighter has gone from punching a mattress to training with UFC legends Demetrious Johnson and Georges St. Pierre and fighting on highly-viewed cards like Karate Combat.
But he’s still an amateur, for now, working with his coach of the last two years Josiah Swarr.
Training at Jiu Jitsu One in Lancaster, it has been a process learning how to train and coach someone like the viral internet star.
“I’m very old school. I do things a certain way, and I was taught by very old school guys. So this whole thing was a little bit weird,” Swarr, a fighter himself, said. “But I got to see his heart a little bit and see that he does have a good heart, even if his brain is a little crazy.”
“He’s definitely not the most coachable guy. He’s gotten a little bit better at listening. And he’s at least paying attention and hearing even if he’s not necessarily listening.”
Swarr has cornered WingedC — or “C” as he sometimes calls him, along with the occasional Malcolm — a handful of times, but won’t this Saturday when the big-name amateur finally turns pro at home.
The headlining fight will see WingedC take on the 1-2 Yve Nelson at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg at Future Fight League 2: Capital Collison.
He doesn’t view this as a launching pad to a UFC run or fighting on a Netflix card.
When asked to pinpoint a goal for his MMA career, Schuyler doesn’t field the question.
WingedC does, in the only way he knows how.
“World domination, radicalize young men, and eventually make my endeavor into terrorism and take over America. That’s the end goal.”
Streetbeefs fighter. Him and death sentence even got the opportunity to train with Demetrius Johnson. BUT hes so mouthy and stupid that mighty mouse dropped him with a head kick.
Thanks Clutch
Oops wrong clip…
He’s a flashy backyard fighter who styles on guys with absolutely zero training. But carries himself like he’s venom page.
He was being a shitbird in one of his last fights and got tapped by a gilly real quick
DJ also broke down one of his fights. Slides in, couple of punches, slides out with his hands down. I have trouble with guys like this. On one hand, hes mouthy and stupid so i hate him. On the other hand, he wins. Maybe im jelly. 
If the guy wants to bang, let em bang. All fighters are a little crazy.