Payton Talbott has made a splash in the Octagon thus far, but one of his UFC bantamweight peers doesn't see what all the fuss is about.
After beginning life on mixed martial arts' biggest stage at the low-capacity Apex, inside of which he submitted Nick Aguirre and knocked out Cameron Saaiman, Talbott had a major chance to introduce himself to the wider audience on June 29.
On the preliminary card of the UFC 303 pay-per-view event at T-Mobile Arena, Talbott shared the Octagon with Yanis Ghemmouri — briefly.
The Frenchman was dropped and stopped with ground-and-pound just 10 seconds into the very first round, moving Talbott to a perfect 9-0 record as a professional and further establishing him as one to watch at 135 pounds.
But not everyone is buying into the hype...
Loughran Shares 'Good But Not Great' View On Talbott
During a recent interview with InsideFighting, UFC bantamweight prospect Caolan Loughran gave his take on some of the prospects, stars, and champions plying their trade in the sport's premier promotion.
When Talbott's name came up, the Irishman said he sees a good fighter, but not a skillset that warrants the amount of discussion being had regarding his potential in the 135-pound division.
Good, but brutally overrated," Loughran said of Talbott. "Good fighter. 100 percent a good fighter. ... But if you watch his debut, taken down, back taken, flattened out, the guy was gassed, comes out again, taken down, back taken. Then he fights Cameron Saaiman who, as I said, will be gone (from the UFC).
Then he fought Ghemmouri, who wouldn't fight me. I don't even want to talk about that guy. I urge anyone watching this, go watch — UFC France put up a video on Instagram of him warming up before he fought Payton Talbott, and it'll tell you all you need to know," Loughran continued. "But a good fighter. Getting all the hype at bantamweight.
Should his wish be granted post-UFC 303, Talbott will have the chance to prove himself worthy of the hype next time out.
In the aftermath of his rapid victory at T-Mobile Arena, the 25-year-old Las Vegas native called out a fighter who formerly boasted similar promise in Adrian Yañez. After an unbeaten start to life in the UFC, the 30-year-old Texan fell short of the top 10 after suffering consecutive losses to Rob Font and Jonathan Martinez.
After bouncing back this past May, perhaps Yañez will look to stall Talbott's own pursuit of a place in contention down the line.
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