Tywan Claxton Working on Rebrand, Wants to Be ‘One of the Highest-Paid Athletes Ever’

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While much of society has been limited during the coronavirus pandemic, Tywan Claxton has been productive during the downtime.

Self-taught in the art of writing computer code, the Bellator MMA featherweight prospect has been working diligently on the relaunch of his “Air” Claxton brand, which he hopes to unveil by year’s end. The former Division II All-American wrestler initially changed his moniker from “Speedy” Claxton to “Air” Claxton after scoring a highlight-reel flying knee KO in his Bellator debut. With it came a slick flying knee logo, something akin to the Jumpman logo spawned by legendary NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

The relaunch will include much more than a logo, though for now the Ohio native is playing it close to the vest when it comes to revelations regarding the “Air” Claxton brand.

“I want to say by the end of the year, beginning of next year, I want to come out with a lot of different things. I’m going to come out with a lot of different things that are fitting around my brand,” Claxton told Sherdog.com. “Kind of an entire media overhaul. That’s basically what I work on when I’m coding. And I’m just continuing to learn and grow so that I can build bigger, better and more exciting things, for my fans – for fight fans, period.”

Claxton’s other endeavor, fighting, has grinded to a halt with Bellator postponing its event schedule through June due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While there has been talk of potentially resuming fight cards in July behind closed doors in space owned by Paramount or CBS, nothing is certain at this point in time. Claxton looks at the forced hiatus as a blessing in disguise after maintaining a frequent fight schedule since his promotional debut in 2017.

“This is giving me a little more time to work on more of my branding and a little bit more time to code -- and then kind of slow down,” he said. “I fought seven times since November 2017, so it gives my body a little bit of a break, my mind a little bit of a break. I’ve been going pedal to the metal with my brand right now.”

“Pedal to the metal” would be an apt description of Claxton’s MMA career, as well. The entirety of the 27-year-old’s professional tenure has been contested under the Bellator banner, and after authoring the brand-building knockout in his initial promotional foray, Claxton didn’t get much chance to ease his way into the limelight, either.

Claxton was never intimidated by the moment, however, and he credits his willingness to embrace the spotlight to a tenure with the now-defunct Blackzilians team under the late found/manager Glenn Robinson. During its peak, the gym boasted a stable that included the likes of Rashad Evans, Kamaru Usman, Alistair Overeem and Anthony Johnson, to name a few. For someone like Claxton who was just getting his feet wet in the sport, it was invaluable experience.

“When I was an amateur, I had sponsors, I had afterparties, I had banners. I’ve never really done local or regional [MMA],” Claxton said. “When I started fighting in Bellator, I just felt right at home. I already felt like I was a top-tier fighter. I was already a pro because I was already training with pros and everybody else at the Blackzilians. I was living that pro lifestyle. It was cool, and it’s cool having all my fights in Bellator. But the lifestyle has kind of been the same I started fighting.”

While Claxton lived up to his blue-chip billing with victories in his first five Bellator appearances, he took a dramatic step up on competition when he squared off against Emmanuel Sanchez in the opening round of the featherweight grand prix last September. While Claxton managed to land multiple takedowns in the bout, he eventually found himself caught in a triangle choke and was forced to tap out in the second round. Sanchez, a former featherweight title challenger, was far more experienced than any of Claxton’s previous foes, but the Strong Style Fight team representative believes he had seen Sanchez’s type – and better – in training.

That said, Claxton is in the middle of different kind of rebrand as a fighter. It began with a victory against Brandon Akeo at Bellator 235 in December, and the process is still ongoing.

“I’ll say this: He’s [Sanchez] nothing that I haven’t experienced before,” Claxton said. “I just hadn’t experienced that in a long time. And it made me get my priorities back together on how I need to be training, who with, etc. It was a little stumble in the road. I think it made me better. It made me face certain things that I didn’t want to face before. That was a good fight for me. That was a life changing fight.

“But the bounce back is still happening, people just don’t know it yet.”

Claxton has big dreams for his future, and revamping his brand and his fighting skills are just the beginning. Most importantly, he wants to point out that what he’s building is authentic – he doesn’t need to force confidence or play a character to get his point across.

“I’m gonna get the belt, and I’m probably gonna be one of the highest-paid athletes ever. That’s how I see [my career] playing out,” Claxton said.

“I feel like it’s easy to build the brand that you want to build when it’s who you truly are. This isn’t a product that I have to sell, or anything of that nature … Once everything is fully revealed, I think that the brand will speak for itself,” he added. “The market that I have the ability to capture is gonna speak for itself. I think everything happens in due time.”