Tyson Ka’eo Nam (born October 6, 1983) is an American professional mixed martial artist who competes in the Flyweight division.
[5][6][7] Nam began his professional MMA career in the Hawaii-based promotion, ICON Sport.
Nam was signed in March 2011 as a short-notice replacement in the promotion's season 6 bantamweight tournament, after the original participant, Rodrigo Lima was forced to withdraw.
[9] The fight was in the Shooto Brazil promotion, in an event that served as a fundraiser for the "Batalhao de Operacoes Policiais Especiais" (Special Police Operations Battalion), which was Rio de Janeiro's military special forces.
[10] Just days prior to the bout, Dantas was ranked as the seventh best bantamweight in the world by Sherdog,[11] making this Nam's most notable opponent to date.
[8][12] Insider sources claimed that Bellator, UFC and the newly formed "World Series of Fighting" promotion had all showed interest in signing Nam.
[8] Nam's trainer, Phil Claud, also commented on the situation, stating: "Bellator is basically saying that they want to sit on Tyson.
Basically, they were saying if you don't (sign the tournament contract), we'll give you an individual fight deal sitting on [him] for a year.
"[16] Bellator CEO, Bjorn Rebney, later defended his contractual clauses, saying "The essence of them is that you're not asking to restrict a fighter's ability to fight.
After more than a decade as a professional mixed martial artist, Nam signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship on short notice to replace injured Alex Perez against Sergio Pettis on September 21, 2019, at UFC on ESPN+ 17.
[23] However, on June 9, 2020, Benoit withdrew from the bout for unknown reason and he was replaced by promotional newcomer Zarrukh Adashev.
[28] However, Schnell was removed from the fight on the day of the event's weigh-in for health issues related to his weight cut.
[34] However, the bout was never officially announced by the promotion and the matchup will not take place on the card due to a recent undisclosed illness for Ulanbekov.
[35] The pair was rescheduled to meet on June 25, 2022, at UFC on ESPN 38[36] but Ulanbekov pulled out due to undisclosed injury.
[39] Nam faced Bruno Gustavo da Silva on March 11, 2023, at UFC Fight Night 221.