LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KOLO) –SATURDAY UPDATE: Reno’s Payton Talbott knocked out his opponent in less than 20 seconds in the preliminary card of UFC 303 in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Talbott knocked down Yanis Ghemmouri and then paused, later telling announcer Joe Rogan he “wanted to get more out of him,” referring to Ghemmouri.
Talbott then called out UFC fighter Adrian Yanez, saying he wanted to find out if Yanez deserves to be ranked in the top 20.
Rogan asked him how it feels.
“Electric,” Talbott replied. “It feels like all my dreams are coming true. Everything I believe is in front of my hands now. I’ve just got to keep going at it.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Mixed martial arts fighter Payton Talbott from Reno is scheduled to fight Saturday at UFC 303 in Las Vegas.
Talbott, with a record of 8-0, is a huge favorite in his bantamweight fight against Yanis Ghemmouri of France.
Talbott is a -1600 favorite, according to the William Hill Sportsbook. That means a person who bets $1,600 on Talbott gets back $1,700 if Talbott wins.
Talbott posted a video on his YouTube page telling Ghemmouri how to beat him. He starts by telling Ghemmouri to take away his legs.
Talbott told journalist Ariel Helwani he spent about two weeks putting together the video and used his computer to translate his words into a French-speaking voice.
“I wanna fight the best version of him and still prevail,” Talbott told Helwani. “That’s just me saying ‘Hey dude you wanna beat me, this is the way to do it, and I hope you try as hard as you can.’ ”
In an interview posted by ESPN, Talbott also dismissed several elite bantamweight fighters, calling Sean O’Malley “pretty boy,” Merab Dvalishvili “dumber than a box of rocks,” Cory Sandhagen “salad fingers” and said Petr Yan was Hasbulla, a reference to a Russian social media personality affiliated with MMA.
Talbott earned a spot on the UFC roster in 2023 by winning in Dana White’s “Contender” series. He trained at Reno Academy of Combat starting at age 17.
Talbott fights on the preliminary card that streams at 5 p.m. on ESPN+ and it is on ESPN.
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