With a late start on his MMA run, wrestling standout Tyler Berger knows it's full speed ahead: 'If I want to be in the UFC, I gotta go'

Three-time All-American at Nebraska makes quick return to take on Sebastian Seagraves at Friday's CFFC 153 in Philadelphia

If you've been impressed by what you've seen from featherweight prospect Tyler Berger thus far in the CFFC age, consider that didn't even throw his first punch until less than two years ago.

A three-time All-American wrestler at the University of Nebraska and 2023 U.S. Open winner, Berger's wrestling career came to a close in April 2024. Like so many high-level athletes before him, Berger still had that burning desire for competition, and he decided to transition to a career in mixed martial arts. The only issue – he was literally starting from square one.

"MMA is crazy," Berger said. "I mean, I come from wrestling where everything's so organized and, like, there's a path, and obviously being from the United States, we're one of the best wrestling countries in the world, so our system is the best, and I just fall in line. I've always done that, where I'm with great people, great training partners, great coaches. They tell me what to do; I just do it.

"Getting into MMA, hey, all right, so I've got to find my striking coaches. I've got to find my jiu-jitsu coaches. I've got to find guys that can mix everything together, and then what gyms do I go to, and is there a head coach, or do I just do this individual work and then piece it all together myself? I don't know anything about MMA, so I'm like bouncing from gym to gym to gym to gym and just thinking like, this is not working very well."

Fortunately for Berger, a friend recommended he check out Philadelphia Striking Academy to seek the tutelage of Head Coach David Nguyen. Berger did exactly that, and he said it felt like a perfect fit from the moment he walked in the door, and he immediately embraced every opportunity the gym offered to learn – not just showing up for fight team practice.

"Literally from the first time I stepped in, I went to a beginner's practice where there's like old women there learning how to jab, and I'm not even kidding," Berger recalled. "I was like, 'Dude, this is what I need, so at the first practice – and then I stayed for the fighters' practice afterwards – but the first practice with the beginners, I was like, 'This is what I need.'

"They focus on fundamentals. They focus on footwork. I need to learn how to jab. I've never thrown a punch before in my life. Like I don't need to learn all these combos, and I don't want to be the wrestler that just dives in on a leg and gets cracked because he doesn't know how to strike. I was like, 'I want to be a striker,' so yeah, we jelled really well, and still to this day, I've been in a lot of gyms. I think my coaches are some of the best, so I've trusted them and they pushed me, and we have a really good working relationship."

Despite all the positives, it hasn't been all smooth sailing for Berger thus far. In his CFFC debut this past August, he suffered a split-decision loss to talented youngster Jeremiah Delgado in a rousing contest. Berger showed his skills in the contest but admits it was a tough result to digest.

"We knew going into the fight, this is going to be a tough fight – this isn't a fight that probably should happen this early in my career," Berger said. "We knew how good he was, even though it was his debut, but I was like, I'm not really in a position to say no to fights, so we were planning for it to be a tough fight, and it was, and yeah, it sucked. Like, I'm a competitor. You see a lot of these wrestlers have a lot of success early, where everyone's undefeated and all these dudes that I see are like, undefeated wrestler, undefeated wrestler, blah, blah, and I'm just like, 'Dude, I just lost my second fight. Are you serious?'

"It was hard. It was like a mix of emotions in my mind of like, dude, I don't know, but my coaches just brought me back down to earth a little bit of like, 'All right, now we've got to push.' When I was fighting, I always thought I was going to win, but I don't think I had this hustle of 'I need to be exciting and I need to finish fights,' and losing, I think really put that fire in me again of if I lose again, I'm probably not making it to UFC, and that's kind of the truth of it and where I'm at in my career. I just had to kind of face myself in the mirror of like, if you want to do this, you better start hustling and put the work in, and you better be exciting when you enter that cage because it's either that, or I'm going to be sitting at a desk working at a job, and I don't want to do that. I'm not built for that."

Berger (2-1 MMA, 1-1 CFFC) returned in February with an impressive second-round finish of a dangerous Abraham Charles to get back in the win column, and now, just two months later, he's ready to step back in the cage again, taking on promotional newcomer Sebastian Seagraves (1-0 MMA, 0-0 CFFC) at Friday's CFFC 153, which streams live on UFC FIGHT PASS following prelims at OnlyFans.com/cffcmma.

Following a standout amateur career, Seagraves scored a first-round knockout in his pro debut, and Berger is expecting another stern challenge.

"I think he's a good fighter," Berger said. "He had a good amateur career. Looks tough, in shape, throws some hands. Yeah, we're ready. We're ready for a good fight. I'm always curious to see how guys prepare to fight me. Everyone's a pressure fighter until you can fight a high-level wrestler, so we'll see. We'll see what's up with him. We're ready for either direction, forward or backward."

Another big result will help Berger put the disappointment of that lone loss behind and take a step forward in his career. For Berger, he knows his MMA career has to be a sprint, not a marathon, so he's looking to spend as little time in the cage as possible, take home a positive result, and get another fight booked as quickly as possible.

"I got a second-round finish – I want to do it a little quicker," Berger said. "We're going to get in and get out in the first round. There's going to be no blood on me. There's going to be no bruises. You're going to see me with my hand raised quickly, so if you're there at 2300 Arena, don't blink.

"I'm 30 years old now, so I know I have to go. If I want to be in the UFC, I gotta go."