Tyson Nam says he “needed” KO win over Ode Osbourne in a “bad way” after long layoff: “There wasn’t one good thing in my favor”

Tyson Nam knew there was a lot of pressure on him heading into his UFC San Diego fight against Ode Osbourne.

Nam was making the walk to the Octagon for the first time since January of 2021 after dealing with multiple injuries. Heading into the fight, Nam admits he didn’t know how he’d do or feel, as he is now 38-years-old and was coming off a major injury.

“Man, I needed that and I needed that in such a bad way,” Nam said to BJPENN.com. “Having this long of a layoff, coming off an ACL surgery, and being 38-years-old as well, there wasn’t one good thing in my favor. I needed that fight to play out exactly how it did.”

In the fight against Osbourne, both men knew it would be a striking fight and Nam was well-aware that Osbourne likes to throw flying knees. The plan was to avoid the knee and throw something right when he lands, yet as Osbourne jumped, Nam decided to throw a punch while he was in there which landed and dropped the Jamaican and he eventually got the KO win.

“I didn’t think I would counter that knee exactly like that,” Nam said. “I was actually going to go to the body and I saw him jump and instincts took over and I threw it at his head and caught him clean on the chin and got the finish.”

When the fight was stopped, Tyson Nam was ecstatic and burst into excitement which he says was 19 months’ worth of emotion coming out at once.

“It was a couple of days short of exactly 19 months since my last fight. When I got the win, it was surreal, that celebration was all the emotions bottled up for that long of a time,” Nam said. “Then, after the fight, I got the $50k bonus and man, I needed that. I do feel like with my KO power I’m always in the running for the bonus money.”

With Nam getting the win, he says he hopes he can return later this year against a ranked opponent. Although he doesn’t care who that opponent is but hopes he can fight in front of fans again.

“I’m just so happy that I’m back active again but I am hoping it is a ranked opponent. I don’t care who they give me as there is no slouch at flyweight so I will fight someone good anyways so whoever they give me I will fight,” Nam concluded.

Who would you like to see Tyson Nam fight next?