CFFC 88 headliner Tycen Lynn only wants toughest fights possible: 'I don't take sure bets'

For many fighters, traveling across the country to headline a Cage Fury Fighting Championships event, live on UFC FIGHT PASS – and in a promotional debut, no less – might prove a nerve-racking experience.

Not for Tycen Lynn.

"I just love a good fight," Lynn said. "I don't take sure bets. I just want to fight the best people and see where I'm at."

Washington's Lynn (7-4) will get that chance when he takes on New Jersey's Phil Caracappa (9-1) in the main event of Wednesday's CFFC 88 at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. It's Lynn's first time under the CFFC banner, and he realizes the opportunity it represents.

"I'm super excited, obviously," Lynn said. "It's a big show, and I'm super excited we're going to be the main event, and we're going to throw down."

For Lynn, competing at the highest level in martial arts is nothing new. The son of national taekwondo competitor, Lynn also took up the art in his youth and placed third in junior nationals as a teenaged black belt. After years of training in taekwondo, Lynn briefly took a hiatus – but his fire for competition was quickly lit again the first time he attended an MMA event.

"I went to my first amateur MMA show and I was like, 'I've got to do this. This is for me,'" Lynn said. "Then I started training after that. I took a fight straight out of a taekwondo gym, my first amateur fight, and I got absolutely destroyed on the ground in my second fight, so I joined a jiu-jitsu gym and just trained straight jiu-jitsu until I got my blue belt."

Lynn is now a purple belt but said he spends most of his time training without a gi and regularly taps black belts. His January win on the Washington regional circuit via gogoplata also stands testament to his grappling acumen.

But Lynn's greatest strength may not simply be his lifelong passion for martial arts, but rather his pension for actively seeking out the biggest challenges possible. In his 11 professional fights to date, he's already faced three UFC veterans: Sean O'Malley, Louis Smolka and Journey Newson.

"The one with O'Malley, he was really highly touted," Lynn said. "I liked that he was also a standup guy, so I thought it would be a war. His boxing was what really took over the fight. He landed a straight two, and I felt my feet go numb, and I was like, 'Oh, sh-t. I'm in a fight.'

"I was a huge fan of Smolka when I took that fight. I thought he was going to try and keep that fight standing, as well, but his ground game – he took me down in the first round, and I have a pretty good guard, and I thought I would be able to fend off a lot of his attacks in the first round. But somewhere in the second round, he figured out some of my escapes and stuff and really started landing some heavy elbows toward the end of the second round."

Lynn came up short in both fights but said he enjoyed being pushed to the limit and learned valuable lessons against top-level competition.

"I was really happy I got to fight guys on that level," Lynn said. "I learned a lot from it."

Lynn will have a chance to show his progress when he takes on Caracappa, who picked up a win at August's CFFC 82 after suffering the lone loss of his pro career in a split-decision result to Ricky Steele at Dana White's Contender Series.

Lynn says he watched those recent bouts and feels confident in the matchup.

"He looks pretty well-rounded," Lynn said. "I saw the Contender Series fight where he fought Ricky Steele. It looked like in that fight, he got a little frustrated with his length and tried to rush in more for takedowns, so it looked like he got a little overwhelmed on his feet in that fight, and then I watched his most recent fight against more of a grappler, and he tried to keep it standing in that fight.

"I think standing up, I'm a bit longer than him. I might have a little more technical ability, so I plan on keeping it standing, but if he wants to go to the ground, we can do that, too."

At 33, Lynn knows he's probably got another four or five years of competing at the sport's highest level. If that run includes a trip to the UFC, he'll take it, but the man known as "Shin to Chin" isn't focused on that goal. Instead, he simply wants to continue taking the toughest fights available and proving his skills in the cage.

"Right now, I want to fight the best people I can fight," Lynn said. I'm always looking for the finish, so whatever I can do, whether it's standing up or on the ground, I'm just looking for any weakness, and hopefully I can find one with Phil.

"I'm going to feel him out. I think once he feels my standup, he's going to try to take me down eventually, so we'll see. I think it's either going to be a finish on the feet or a finish on the ground."

CFFC 88 kicks off a two-night run for the promotion at 2300 Arena. Both cards stream live on UFC FIGHT PASS.