Payton Talbott reveals Henry Cejudo’s ‘career-changing’ advice prior to UFC 323 booking

Payton Talbott and Henry Cejudo never thought they would be fighting each other, but now they will in—what looks to be—Cejudo’s last hurrah.

Cejudo faces Talbott in a bantamweight main card matchup at UFC 323 this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Talbott admits he was a bit surprised the UFC went in this direction with the matchmaking, but there was no way he could turn it down.

While Cejudo is known for having a bit of fun, and riling up his opponents during his fight weeks, Talbott says he’s ready for anything Cejudo brings in his direction since he has familiarity with the Olympic gold medalist.

“We kind of know each other,” Talbott told MMA Fighting. “We’re pretty familiar, so it would take a lot to like really surprise me, I think, and I think he knows that. So we’ll see what happens because I’m pretty chill, but yeah, I don’t know. I’m also interested to see what happens during fight week.”

Cejudo makes his fourth appearance since ending his first MMA retirement at UFC 249 in May 2020 following a successful bantamweight title defense against Dominick Cruz. “Triple C” ended his hiatus after three years on the sidelines, dropping a decision to then-champ Aljamain Sterling at UFC 288 in May 2023. From there, Cejudo dropped decisions to current champ Merab Dvalishvili and, most recently, Song Yadong in the main event of UFC Seattle in February.

But it was prior to the fight with Dvalishvili when Talbott got to know Cejudo, and received advice from the former two-division champion that continues to stick with him.

“We hung out together for a couple days straight,” Talbott said. “He gave me a lot of like career-changing advice and tried to mentor me quite a bit because, I mean, he was supposed to retire. It was leading up to his Merab fight, he was supposed to retire after that, so it was like, we’re never going to fight each other, and here we are.

“He gave me a lot [of advice] actually. Without getting too specific, it was just, you know, how to structure your camp to mimic competition, in terms of mentality, what the body can take and just how important it is to have security outside of fighting — which I always knew, but he just had his whole life based around long-term security, like financial security. And he seemed to be very, very adamant about like, ‘You have no idea what’s going to come later on in life. You always need to make sure you’re good financially because everyone will try to f*ck you.’ And yeah, it takes somebody telling you that and seeing it to really know, and now I’m in a position where he was really trying to do right with by me, and he was right.”

Talbott came out of Dana White’s Contender Series as a highly-touted prospect, and someone the UFC likely saw as poised for stardom. After finishing his first three opponents, Talbott began the year by taking his first career loss to Raoni Barcelos at UFC 322 in January. The 27-year-old bounced back with an impressive decision win over Felipe Lima at UFC 317 in June.

A ranked opponent seemed to be in the cards, according to Talbott, who says multiple opponents turned him down. But with Cejudo saying yes, and Talbott getting an incredible litmus test so early in his career, he couldn’t be more thrilled.

Not to mention, what it means to be Cejudo’s final mixed martial arts opponent.

“I think it’s amazing, [and] that’s a big reason of why I took this fight,” Talbott said. “I think you’re not really gonna get an opportunity like this again, and I’m not really here to try to get the belt and pick my way up to the top. Like I just want to fight the toughest dudes and somebody like Henry is just a special person in my weight class and that kind of legacy, I’m not really going to find anywhere else right now. So I want to see what I can do in there. I want to see what I’m made of in there a little bit with a stud like that. I want to see what I got in me.

“It’s an honor [to be his final opponent]. That’s also why I was so for the fight, because it’s just, it’s very rare that you get to do that, and to walk somebody out of their love and passion, and what they do in life, it’s an honor because he’s going to show up in that fight unlike how he’s ever shown up before. And I think I’m all about ringing them like a wet rag and getting every last drop out, so I think that that is going to be entirely possible in the fight because it is likely his last one.”