Payton Talbott has a name and date for his return to the octagon.
The undefeated UFC bantamweight prospect takes on veteran Raoni Barcelos at UFC 311 – the promotion’s first pay-per-view of 2025, which is set to go down on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.
UFC officially announced the fight Saturday. MMA Fighting was first to report the matchup.
Talbott (9-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is coming off his quickest career win, a 19-second knockout of Yanis Ghemmouri at UFC 303 back in June. The 26-year-old fighter is regarded as one of the best prospects today at 125 pounds. Talbott has also won two back-to-back $50,000 Performance of the Night bonuses in his last two performances.
On the other hand, his opponent, Barcelos (18-5 MMA, 7-4 UFC), is coming off a submission win over Cristian Quiñonez back in February. The win snapped a two-fight losing streak for the 37-year-old veteran, who’s 2-4 in his past six trips to the octagon.
The current UFC 311 lineup includes:
- Jamahal Hill vs. Jiri Prochazka
- Kevin Holland vs. Reinier de Ridder
- Jailton Almeida vs. Serghei Spivac
- Grant Dawson vs. Diego Ferreira
- Muin Gafurov vs. Rinya Nakamura
- Bogdan Guskov vs. Johnny Walker
- Ailin Perez vs. Karol Rosa
- Sedriques Dumas vs. Zach Reese
- Raoni Barcelos vs. Payton Talbott
- Bernardo Sopaj vs. Ricky Turcios
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
