Payton Talbott didn’t take his first career loss lightly.
Talbott delivered another impressive performance inside the Octagon at UFC 317, scoring a unanimous decision victory over Felipe Lima in Las Vegas. But just six months ago, the Nevada native suffered his first setback as a professional fighter, coming up short against Raoni Barcelos at UFC 311.
Looking back on the loss during a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Talbott revealed that the defeat weighed heavily on his mind, even impacting his ability to train.
“I didn’t take it lightly. I lost the fight, and just on a primitive level, if the ref wasn’t in there and it was me and him, like, he would have killed me. And I don’t take that lightly. It’s deep. It kept me up late at night, had trouble coming to terms with that. I used that to fuel a lot of my training.
“It actually took me quite a while to get back to training because I had really bad vertigo episodes for about a month or two after the fight. Once I got that fully healed, that was my main motivator for training, and it actually helped out a lot.”
Payton Talbott has the makings of a future world champion
Losing can be a hard pill to swallow for some fighters, but what truly matters is how you respond to the loss.
Needless to say, Talbott reacted like any world-class athlete would — putting on a dominant display in his next outing and getting his hand raised once again. What’s next for the 26-year-old standout remains to be seen, but 11 fights into his career, it’s clear that Talbott has all the makings of a future world champion.
