INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Payton Talbott may need been fascinated by moving into the highest 5 some day, nevertheless it in all probability wasn’t this one.
Talbott (9-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) on Saturday suffered a top-five greatest upset loss in UFC historical past when he was dominated by Raoni Barcelos (19-5 MMA, 8-4 UFC) for a unanimous resolution to shut out the preliminary card at UFC 311 at Intuit Dome.
Talbott was unbeaten coming into the bantamweight bout and was a betting favourite of round -1150 within the combat. The upsets above him within the pecking order: Holly Holm over Ronda Rousey (-1600), Shana Dobson over Mariya Agapova (-1400) and Matt Serra over Georges St-Pierre (-1200).
However the best way Barcelos is taking a look at it, these odds in Talbott’s favor by no means ought to have been that top to start with. The entire thing put a chip on his shoulder.
“In actuality, that actually motivated me,” Barcelos mentioned after his win. “It actually drove me as a result of I’ve such a protracted historical past within the sport. I’ve accomplished a lot within the sport that folks might not even notice, and also you’re simply so disrespectful (with these odds). So that actually made me go in there more durable to get this one, together with issues in my camp that I wouldn’t ordinarily do as a result of I wished to show to everybody that these odds are simply fully insane. They have been simply fully overlooking me. I needed to show to everybody, and particularly to myself, that that I’m right here, that I can do that. The percentages have been unreal.”
Barcelos got here to the UFC in 2018 after a run as RFA’s featherweight champion. He gained his first 5 fights within the promotion, together with when he dropped to bantamweight. However then he went on a tough run of 4 losses in 5 fights – together with a knockout loss two years ato to UFC 311 title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov.
However now the Brazilian has back-to-back wins – a submission win on the highway in Mexico and Saturday’s monumental upset of Talbott.
“All through this entire camp, it was onerous seeing lots of people not believing in me. Lots of people have been saying numerous issues on-line,” Barcelos mentioned. “However I knew I may do that. He’s acquired nice standup, coming off a bunch of knockouts, so there’s no purpose for me to face up with him. I’ve good wrestling. I wanted to go in there and take him down and management him, and that’s precisely what I did.”
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