Caolan
Loughran is not buying into the hype behind Payton
Talbott.
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Going into his upcoming
UFC 304 clash against Jake Hadley
(10-3), Loughran (9-1) questioned the hype behind fellow
bantamweight prospect Talbott (9-0). While the Irishman
acknowledges Talbott’s skillset, he has noticed certain
shortcomings in the latter’s game. Loughran claims that while all
rising stars in history had their ground game doubted initially,
Talbott’s grappling actually got exposed in his debut against
Nick
Aguirre. Talbott was outgrappled by Aguirre in the first round
before coming back to score a third-round stoppage win in his first
UFC outing in November 2023.
“Talbott is a good fighter – 100 percent a good fighter. Fair play
to him going well, but [expletive] man, cool the jets,” Loughran
said at the UFC 304 media day. “I watched his debut. Whenever the
Mac [Conor
McGregor] was coming up, people were saying when he fights a
grappler, he’ll get smashed. When [Sean O’Malley] was coming up,
when he fights a grappler, he’ll get smashed. But it was
speculation, really. You hadn’t seen it. I watched his debut,
fuc*ing some lad [Aguirre], I don’t even know who the guy was,
comes out, takes him down, takes the back, flattens him out,
gasses.”
Talbott’s stock skyrocketed after he laid down a winning gameplan
for Yanis
Ghemmouri before knocking him out in 19 seconds at UFC 303 last
month, securing his third UFC finish in as many fights. Downplaying
the win, Loughran urged fans to watch a warm-up clip of the
Frenchman before riding Talbott’s hype train.
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“Comes out second round, gassed again, finds himself on his back.
I’m like, ‘Jeez, lad, you don’t actually know fuc*ing… you’re
giving your back every time.’ He is a good fighter 100 percent and
fair play to him. He, after sparking that kid [Yanis] Ghemmouri who
pulled out on me Tuesday morning… I would urge anyone who’s
watching this to hit pause and watch UFC France – There’s a video
of him [Ghemmouri] warming up for that fight – before you blow
Payton up over that win. He is good, but I think getting a wee bit
too much hype at the weight class. There’s definitely tougher
fights at 135 for less hype. If the UFC want me to do that at the
end of this year or the next, absolutely no fuc*ing problem. I’ll
fight Payton Talbott next, no problem.”
Loughran suffered his lone career loss against Taylor
Lapilus in his UFC debut in September 2023 but has since
bounced back with a unanimous decision win over Angel Pachecho this
past March. Loughran’s upcoming opponent, Hadley, accepted the
fight on a week’s notice and will be moving up a weight class after
the originally scheduled opponent Ramon
Taveras pulled out due to injury.