Just 2-0 as pro, Bellator's Tywan Claxton already wants McKee, Pico, Gallagher or Freire

Tywan Claxton can see where Bellator officials are coming from when it comes to building their rising talent. But understanding a situation and liking it, it turns out, are two entirely different things.

Two stoppage wins – including a viral one – into his Bellator career, Claxton isn’t shy about voicing his ambitions and plans. And, if he were to have it his way, they would include fights with the likes of A.J. McKee, Aaron Pico, James Gallagher and even champ Patricio Freire.

But then again, it’s not entirely up to him.

“I had a talk with (Bellator matchmaker) Mike Kogan, an he pretty much just said, ‘Let’s just keep moving in the right direction and take baby steps,’” Claxton told MMajunkie Radio.

To an extent, Claxton (2-0 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) gets it.

“It’s like when you first meet a new girl, you don’t just go up to her and say, ‘Hey, I think you’re cute. I want to bang,’” Claxton said. “You’ve got to romance her and dance around a little bit. Eventually you’ll – it’s an investment. And those guys are looking at me like an investment. They’re also looking at the Picos and the McKees and the Gallaghers as investments.”

But here’s where there’s a problem.

“Pretty much, those guys don’t want me to fight them right now,” Claxton said. “Or those guys are just turning down the fight. One way or another, I don’t really know what it is, but it seems as if there’s nobody really in the division that wants to step up and fight me, which is absolutely insane.”

At this point, Claxton has grown accustomed to hearing “you’re just getting started” talks. And, considering his two Bellator appointments were, incidentally, his first two professional MMA bouts, it’s not like they’re unreasonable. But then again, that’s just his pro record.

Before that, there were seven amateur bouts – all of them victorious. So if you were a fly on the wall observing his training at Florida’s Blackzillians camp, maybe you would rethink the “getting started” part.

“I fight better with better competition,” Claxton said. “That’s just how I am. I’m a competitor. But like I said, at the end of the day, if you’re a fly on that wall, you would expect greatness from me, and you wouldn’t expect anything less than that.”

Of course, we did catch some glimpses already. In November, Claxton made sure to add an exclamation point to his debut with a highlight-reel flying knee knockout.

The “Knockout of the Year” candidate landed him a spot on Bellator 194’s main card in February. But while Claxton again took care of business – this time with a second-round TKO over Jose Perez – the high standards he’d set for himself made him disappointed at that one.

“I guess it’s how you look at it,” Claxton told MMAjunkie at the time. “You can’t throw a flying knee in your pro debut, and then…”

Judging by a chat with MMAjunkie Radio later, it seems Claxton has somewhat come to terms with that. But he still believes that people only got to see a small portion of what he’s capable of. And it will take a worthy adversary to make sure that’s no longer the case.

“That’s one thing, kind of why I was little frustrated after my fight, because I know,” Claxton said. “Everybody close to me knows. People that I’ve trained with know. And I think it’s going to take something like one of those fights, like a Pico, or a Gallagher or McKee, to really bring it out in me. So that people can really see exactly what I can do to the top level guys – no matter what organization or what weight class, if it’s featherweight, lightweight, either one of those.

“It’s a storm, man. It’s just brewing. And it’s going to happen, but I would like it to happen sooner rather than later.”

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

MMAjunkie Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) live from Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by “Gorgeous” George Garcia, Brian “Goze” Garcia and Dan Tom. For more information or to download past episodes, go towww.mmajunkie.com/radio.