Former UFC Champ Suggests Path Forward for Payton Talbott

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Payton Talbott UFC
Payton Talbott UFC Getty

Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling suggested what the path forward could be for rising star Payton Talbott.

Talbott is coming off a first-round TKO win over Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 332 that put him into the upper echelon of the UFC bantamweight division after going 6-1 in his first seven UFC bouts.

Now, for his next fight, Sterling has an idea for him.

Aljamain Sterling’s Idea for Payton Talbott

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Sterling suggested an idea for Talbott.

“Aiemann Zahabi? Give him another 40-year-old. Why are we stopping now?” Sterling said (via MMAjunkie.com).

Clearly, Sterling is not a fan of the way that the UFC is matching up Talbott, after he fought a 38-year-old Figueiredo in his last bout.

Aljamain Sterling Doubts Payton Talbott vs. Sean O’Malley Happens

To his credit, Talbott called out Sean O’Malley for his next fight, a UFC bantamweight who is in his prime. But Sterling thinks the UFC is going to give him another aging vet for his next fight, instead.

“It’s not going to happen, but I think they planted the seed. I mean, Sandman’s (Cory Sandhagen) been calling him out, now Payton’s calling him out, (Umar Nurmagomedov’s) in the wings, the title fight is coming up. There’s a lot of movement. This is a whole lot of motion at 135 right now, and I just love the division again. I was looking at the rankings, I was like, ‘Damn, I kind of miss being in this playground with these guys,’ you know? I thought about it (dropping back down). I was like, yeah, no, I’d die, I think. I don’t know,” Sterling said.

As for Sterling, he returns to the Octagon at UFC Qatar next month when he takes on rising featherweight contender Kevin Vallejos in what should be an exceptional matchup between two of the best fighters in the world at 145 lbs.

We’ll see if Sterling ends up getting a title shot off of that, as he is certainly in the mix at 145 lbs to fight the winner of the upcoming UFC featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and Movsar Evloev.

This article was originally published on HEAVY

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