Payton Talbott made a statement at UFC 317 to answer “fraud check” claims.
After a thrilling preliminary portion that featured three first-round finishes, the main card of Saturday’s UFC 317 pay-per-view kicked off with the return of Talbott.
The highly touted bantamweight was in action for the first time since suffering the first loss of his professional career. Talbott was beaten at UFC 311 by Raoni Barcelos in a shock decision this past January, leading some in the community to cry “fraud check.”
With that, the pressure was on the 26-year-old when he squared off with a fellow prospect in Brazil’s Felipe Lima — and he went above and beyond to prove his doubters wrong.
Payton Talbott stuns fans at UFC 317 by outgrappling Felipe Lima
Given Lima’s grappling strength, many were predicting Talbott to fall to the same kind of defeat at UFC 317 that he suffered in Los Angeles five months ago.
But the Las Vegas native displayed an improvement that Joe Rogan branded “tremendous” during ground and clinch exchanges, as he reversed position a number of times.
And after finishing the fight on top while raining down heavy ground-and-pound shots, Talbott had his hand raised after earning a trio of 29-28 scorecards.
Suffice it to say, fans were impressed with Talbott’s five-month grappling transformation. And many reactions on social media featured the same word: Dagestan.
“Payton Talbott went to Dagestan for a few months it seems.”
“Very impressive performance from Talbott.”
“Did Talbott go to Dagestan?”
“They gave Talbott a test against a really good grappler and he aced the test.”
“Talbott went to Dagestan 2-3 years and forgot.”
“Talbott did in 5 months what (Sean) O’Malley couldn’t do in 5 years.”
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Payton Talbott welcomed tough UFC 317 assignment after first defeat
Some were surprised to see two promising prospects matched up against one another at UFC 317, especially on the back of Talbott’s opening career setback.
The 26-year-old himself, though, welcomed the assignment.
“I don’t think they really wanted to matchmake us,” Talbott said at UFC 317 media day.
“If I had control over when I fight, where it is, who it is, and could have everything be super certain, that would be a perfect world, but I’m happy to fight this guy. This is a tough fight for me, and that’s what I’m here to do.
“I mean, this is fighting. This isn’t a ‘build-the-star’ business,” Talbott added. “So, I wasn’t surprised at all (by the matchup). If we’re both doing our jobs well, maybe we’ll meet again in a year or two.”
Talbott is now 10-1 in professional MMA and has reignited discussions about his incredibly bright future in the UFC.