The toughest lessons of all for any aspiring athlete to learn on the job are often the most impactful in a fighter’s journey because they can carry over long after they put the gloves to rest with the ties of family blood remaining steadfast as the center core throughout their combat sports careers In today’s episode of Across The Pond, you will meet the newest tiger tornado strutting his stripes in the show me state. An Amateur mixed martial artist since March 2025 and representing Blue Collier Mafia, Gerrit VanBerkel holds a 2-0 record consisting of one submission and one knockout. He has fought for Nemesis Fighting Alliance and Shamrock FC. VanBerkel has never gone to the scorecards during his career as an Amateur MMA fighter with a 100 percent finish rate to show for it. Both of his finishes have come in the opening round inside of five minutes or fewer. VanBerkel has spent his whole career in the United States in his home state of Missouri. He has two first-round finishes under his belt through two appearances in the Amateur ranks with times of 49 seconds and one minute and 36 seconds respectively in those two bouts.
In his Amateur MMA debut at Shamrock FC 362, he faced Nicholas Maxwell and went on to submit him via rear-naked choke in round one to score his first submission victory as an Amateur. Then at Nemesis Fighting Alliance 21, VanBerkel defeated Chris Welch via technical knockout in the first round. The victory secured VanBerkel the first knockout win of his Amateur career in addition to back-to-back finishes to start his Amateur career. He also earned his second consecutive victory as an Amateur mixed martial artist in the process. At 2-0, VanBerkel knows that cashing cage checks is an around the clock part of every working man’s long labor hour in the work week!
