UFC 304’s Caolan Loughran Willing to Fight ‘Overhyped’ Payton Talbott

Caolan Loughran is not buying into the hype behind Payton Talbott.

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.