Nam recalls wanting to thrash ex-Bellator president Bjorn Rebney

With 13 years of professional experience and closing in on 30 professional fights, it seems almost impossible that we have yet to see Tyson Nam in the UFC. Especially given the excitement he brings in his fights and the 9 vicious KOs he has on that record.

After that much cage time, with quite a bit of success, even Nam had begun to doubt that it was ever going to happen for him.

There was always a doubt. Two times I’ve been denied by chance due to contract disputes, so I had almost kind of written it off a couple of years ago that I may never fight in the UFC, Nam told the Top Turtle MMA Podcast. I guess I must have stepped in some dogs*** or something because I got really lucky and I got the call on early Sunday morning and dreams do come true.

Those contract disputes date back to 2012, when Nam was given the chance to face then Bellator bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas on a small local show in Rio de Janeiro. Even though Dantas was the reigning champion, he was given the okay to take the fight with the smaller promotion while the company worked out the next contender with one of their tournaments.

Nam did everything in his power though to spoil the plans to keep the champ busy. Just over 90 seconds into the first round, he put Dantas out cold with a huge punch. Since it wasn’t under the Bellator banner, Nam appeared to be able to sign wherever he wanted – and the UFC was very interested.

[The UFC] gave us a phone call, they gave us an opponent, they gave us a date. All I had to do was sign on the dotted line, Nam said. I think I was supposed to fight Urijah Faber on like Christmas or New Year’s Eve

A clause in the fight contract added by the Bellator president himself, just in case something like his champ being knocked silly should happen, stopped Nam’s dreams short.

Bjorn Rebney, what an a**hole, just came along and chopped it in half, Nam recalled. [And because of the lawyers] I could never speak to them face to face and tell them how I feel about them. Probably a good idea because I would have wanted to thrash somebody at that point.

Although it was heartbreaking at the time, Nam has found a way to get over. His self-motivation has driven him to keep at his dream no matter where he thought it was going.

I’m always a motivated person whether I want to better myself as a human being, but ever since I was 5 years old I was into competitive athletics, Nam said. I always had a motivating factor of competition and mixed martial arts is competition at its finest. So even if I didn’t fight in the UFC, I wanted to fight in general. We like to do that in Hawaii – we like to punch each other in the face.

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And ultimately, it was a blessing in disguise. The extra time allowed Nam to find his proper weight class.

In the past two years, with me dropping down to flyweight, I feel like I’ve really found my home, he said. At 135 pounds I was always a little undersized.

But even at the smaller weight class, don’t expect to see any change in the gameplan for the knockout heavy Nam. In fact, it’s the only way he feels like he truly wins a fight.

I’m only looking to knock people out, Nam said. No matter where I fight, that’s the only way I win.

Nam looks to add his first UFC knockout as he faces #5 ranked flyweight Sergio Pettis on UFC on ESPN+ live from Mexico City this weekend.

Author Daniel Vreeland is a co-founder of the Top Turtle Podcast, and a brown belt in Jiu-Jitsu at New England Submission Fighting in Amherst, Massachusetts.