Caolan Laughlan doesn’t believe the Peyton Talbot hype.
Ahead of his UFC 304 bout against Jake Hadley (10-3), Loughran (9-1) questioned the overvaluation of fellow bantamweight prospect Talbot (9-0). While the Irishman acknowledges Talbot’s skill, he sees some flaws in Talbot’s game. Loughran argues that every rising star in history has initially been questioned about their ground game, but Talbot’s grappling was really exposed in his debut against Nick Aguirre. Talbot lost a grappling bout to Aguirre in the first round, but won by stoppage in the third round in his UFC debut in November 2023.
“Talbot is a good fighter. He’s 100% a good fighter. It’s good that he’s progressing well, but [expletive] “Stay calm,” Laughran said at UFC 304 media day. “I watched his debut. I watched Mac. [Conor
McGregor] People were saying that if he fought a grappler, he would get beaten. [Sean O’Malley] I expected him to fight a grappler and get beaten. But that was speculation. You didn’t see it. I saw his debut. [Aguirre]”A guy I don’t even know who the guy was comes out, takes the guy down, attacks him from behind, takes the guy down and gasses him out.”
Talbot’s reputation soared after he orchestrated a win over Iannis Ghemli last month at UFC 303, knocking him out in 19 seconds for his third UFC finish. Lafran played down the win and urged fans to watch video of the Frenchman’s warm-up before getting on board with the Talbot craze.
UFC 304: Edwards vs. Muhammad Saturday at 10 ET on ESPN+. Order yours now! “In the second round, he gassed himself out again and he was on his back. I was like, ‘Man, you don’t actually know what you’re doing… you’re on your back every time.’ He’s 100% a good fighter and fair play to him. He lit that kid on fire and then… [Yanis] Gem Mori, who withdrew from me on Tuesday morning… I would encourage anyone watching this to pause and watch UFC France, there’s a video of him there. [Ghemmouri] I’m warming up for that fight before I make a big fuss about letting Peyton win. He’s a good fighter, but I think he’s a little over-expected at this weight class. There are definitely tougher fights at 135 pounds that are not expected of him. If UFC wants me to do it at the end of this year or next year, that’s totally fine. I’ll fight Peyton Talbot next, no problem.”
LaFran suffered the only loss of his career to Taylor Lapiras in his UFC debut in September 2023, but bounced back with a unanimous decision win over Angel Pachecho in March of this year. LaFran’s next opponent, Hadley, accepted the bout on one week’s notice and will move up a weight class after originally scheduled opponent Ramon Taveras withdrew due to injury.
