After three-year layoff, CFFC 116 headliner Tyler Mathison 'all in' on MMA career

For as long as he can remember, Minnesota's Tyler Mathison just knew he'd be a fighter, and at 19 years old, he stepped into the cage for the very first time.

"Growing up in high school and wrestling and stuff, I always knew I kind of wanted to fight," Mathison said. "As soon as I could, I had my first fight, and then I wrestled in college and stuff, and so I tried to do it a little bit, you know, in the summers or whatever, but they weren't super happy about me doing that, so that kind of limited how much you could fight."

Mathison's coaches at St. Cloud State University weren't exactly supportive of his MMA ambitions, so fighting was put on hold, but he returned to his passion as quickly as possible, crossing paths with current Bellator bantamweight standout Raufeon Stots in a 2015 amateur bout.

"He wrestled at UNK, and he beat one of my teammates in the finals," Mathison recalled. "They offered me his name, and I was like, 'Oh, I've got to take it,' and then he obviously beat me, but it was a fun one. We became actually pretty good friends since then. He's a good dude."

Mathison took his first pro fight in 2018, picking up a stoppage win on the Wisconsin regional scene before making his CFFC debut one year later and suffering a decision loss to blue-chip prospect Paul Capaldo. Despite the setback, Mathison felt like he was moving in the right direction before a lifetime of training on the mats forced him to take a step back – one that would see him go more than three years without a fight.

"I've had six ACL surgeries, and 10 times I've had my knees worked on, so I wish I could have stayed busier," Mathison said. "In that gap, I had an ACL surgery and then that one didn't work, six months in, and so then I had to have these two surgeries back-to-back. One was like to reconstruct my bone and my knee so that the next ACL would take, basically. It was pretty sh-tty."

In October, Mathison was finally cleared to compete for the first time since 2019, taking a fight in his home state and picking up a 97-second win.

"It was unreal," Mathison said of his return. "I was pretty pumped up. Just before the fight, that was the most excited I've ever been. I wasn't nervous at all. It was a pretty good feeling. 

"I just like competing, and not being able to compete for almost four years, it definitely felt good to get back in there."

Just two months later and looking to make up for lost time, Mathison (3-2) now returns to the CFFC cage for the biggest fight of his career thus far, when he faces the undefeated Eddy Torres (4-0) in a lightweight headliner at CFFC 116, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS from New Jersey's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City on Friday, December 16.

The same venue hosted Mathison's first CFFC appearance, and he's excited for a second crack.

"I think it'll be a fun one," Mathison said. "I fought for them a few years ago, and it was a pretty sweet venue and just a pretty cool atmosphere and everything, so I think this will be pretty awesome."

In Torres, Mathison faces an athlete who was focused on a featherweight run but struggled to find willing opponents, forcing him to move up a division to secure a fight. Mathison has seen Torres' work and believes the matchup is perfect.

"I watched him a little bit," Mathison said. "Technically, the negatives of him – I think he gets tired. He throws big punches, kind of wide punches in the first round, and then he wrestles, and I think it really plays into my gameplan. You know, I'm just wearing guys out, so I'm excited. I think this will look good on my record because he does have a good record, and I think it's just a good matchup for me."

Now 30, Mathison knows the time for him to make a run to the top of the sport is now, but with his injuries finally behind him, he's confident that he's primed to do exactly that. A win over a previously undefeated opponent in a CFFC headliner would be a fantastic first step in that direction.

"I want to fight as much as possible," Mathison said. "I'm going to just get as many fights in as I can. I'm 30, so my window of time is getting closer, so I just want to go all out here for the next however many years I can do it, and then see what happens. I'm all in."

ARTICLE BY: SERENA GARCIA