NBA has Air Jordan; MMA has 'Air' Claxton after his incredible flying knee at Bellator 186

“Speedy” Claxton is no more, ladies and gentleman.

24-year-old Tywan Claxton, who went viral over the weekend following his flying-knee knockout of Jonathan Bonilla-Bowman in his pro MMA debut at Bellator 186, announced Monday on MMAjunkie Radio that he’s got a new nickname.

“I’m gonna make the official announcement,” Claxton said. “You know, I was gonna make a post, but we’re gonna make it on here. ‘Speedy’ Claxton died with my amateur career. It’s ‘Air’ Claxton now.

“The NBA’s got Air Jordan. MMA’s got ‘Air’ Claxton.”

Claxton (1-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) would later share his nickname change – and a pretty sweet logo to go with it – on Twitter.

Hey, you can change your nickname to whatever you want after your pro debut when you pull off an insane finisher like Claxton’s  – which, if you haven’t see it by now, do yourself a favor and watch it here:

Claxton was blown away by the response to his “Knockout of the Year” frontrunner.

“My phone was blowing up,” Claxton said. “I got Sprint, so I didn’t get every single message until I got out of the arena, and it was blowing up like crazy. My Twitter’s going wild. My Instagram’s going wild. I got girls that never talk to me slide into my DMs. I was feeling love.”

Girls that never talk to him sliding into his DMs? Hey now!

Claxton told MMAjunkie backstage following his win that he’d like to fight Bellator’s prized prospect, Aaron Pico, adding that he believes he – not Pico – is the next Bellator star at featherweight.

Regardless of his opponent, though, Claxton promises he hasn’t even scratched the surface of flashy finishes in his arsenal.

“I’m a wild, wild man,” he said. “Half the things that most people won’t try, I will try. I have a lot of dangerous and explosive moves that people won’t see coming.”

Let us all hope we see them executed in the cage.

For complete coverage of Bellator 186, check out the MMA Events section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.