Raoni Barcelos humbles hyped prospect Payton Talbott in UFC 311 upset
Raoni Barcelos derailed the Payton Talbott hype train at UFC 311 with a dominant win despite being the biggest betting underdog on the entire card.
Raoni Barcelos derailed the Payton Talbott hype train, and it wasn’t particularly close.
The 37-year-old Brazilian won a unanimous decision over the 26-year-old American, despite being the biggest betting underdog on the entire UFC 311 card.
Talbott was a 12-to-1 favourite and regarded as a top prospect in the bantamweight division after starting his mixed martial arts career 9-0.
Barcelos got off to a strong start in the cage Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. on Saturday by taking Talbott to the ground early and often, putting his wrestling to use throughout the 15-minute preliminary bout and landing multiple takedowns in all three rounds.
Talbott earned a UFC contract through Dana White’s Contender’s Series in 2023 and picked up three consecutive highlight finishes that contributed to his potential being highlighted this week.
None of that mattered to Barcelos, however, and the veteran 135-pounder frequently took mount and back control and registered multple submission attempts.
Talbott was one of three unbeaten fighters who competed on the UFC 311 preliminary card and none emerged with their unblemished records intact.
Touted Japanese wrestler Rinya Nakamura fell to 9-1 after being upset by Muin Gafurov, a former LFA titleholder, who’s now riding a two-fight winning streak after beginning his UFC career 0-2
Khabib Nurmagomedov, the retired former UFC lightweight champion, made his first appearance of the evening in his role as coach and cornerman when Tagir Ulanbekov became the first person to defeat Clayton Carpenter in the opening bout of the night.
Ulanbekov was one of three Khabib pupils at UFC 311. His teammates Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov were featured at the top of the card in the main and co-main events, taking on Renato Moicano and Merab Dvalishvili, respectively.
The 33-year-old from Dagestan was ranked as the No. 11 contender in the flyweight division prior to improving to 16-2 in MMA and said in his post-fight interview he has his sights set on the current 125-pound champion, Alexandre Pantoja. Ulanbekov is now 5-1 at the UFC level and has taken down his opponent in all six of his Octagon appearances.
In other preliminary action, Azamat Bekoev had a successful UFC debut and put himself on the map in the UFC’s middleweight division with a first-round knockout of Zachary Reese.
Bekoev was the reigning LFA champion when he got the call to replace Sedriques Dumas earlier this week and he made quick work of Reese, raining down nasty ground-and-pound strikes that rendered Reese unconscious.
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Bogdan Guskov extended his winning streak at 205 pounds by tapping out short-notice replacement opponent Billy Elekana twice but only getting credit for one.
Elekana had early success with a takedown but was unable to capitalize on his positional advantage. At the end of the opening round, Guskov locked in a choke and Elekana tapped out except it happened after the round ended so the fight went to Round 2.
Guskov, who was originally slated to Johnny Walker, began battering Elekana along the fence with punches and eventually sunk in another choke that resulted in another Elekana tap. This time it was official and Guskov extended his finishing streak to three.
Walker announced last weekend he sustained an unspecified “bad injury” in training that led to his withdrawal.
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Grant Dawson was not ranked in the top 15 at 155 pounds heading into Saturday’s action but that could soon change after Dawson picked up the biggest win over his UFC career to date.
Dawson swept the scorecards and snapped Carlos Diego Ferreira’s hot streak with a thorough three-round showing. The 30-year-old Dawson is now 11-1-1 since debuting in the UFC in 2019.
Diego Ferreira, 40, has been one of the more unheralded veterans in the deep lightweight division and had knocked out Mateusz Rebecki and Michael Johnson in his previous two bouts.
Bernardo Sopaj rebounded from a brutal knockout loss he suffered in his UFC debut more than 10 months ago, winning a unanimous decision over Ricky Turcios.
The 24-year-old from Sweden went back to the drawing board after being put out cold by a Vinicius Oliveira flying knee with a more reserved and methodical approach in his second UFC appearance. Sopaj landed fewer total strikes than Turcios in the 15-minute bout but his were deemed more effective.
Turcios is a past winner of The Ultimate Fighter but has lost three of his past four outings dating back to 2021.
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