Payton Talbott needed 2:09 to finish Deiveson Figueiredo in the UFC 332 co-main event Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Most people will share the clip for the early right hand that dropped the former two-time flyweight champion. The moment that taught me more came after Figueiredo got back up.
How the finish happened
According to Yahoo Sports’ breakdown, Talbott landed a sharp right hand almost immediately, and Figueiredo hit the canvas. He recovered and stood up, then did what a hurt, smaller fighter is supposed to do to buy time: he shot for a takedown. Talbott met him with a knee to the chin, created a little space, and landed another big shot. Figueiredo chose to trade from there, Talbott backed him into the fence and kept throwing, and referee Jason Herzog stepped in. The official result from UFC News on X reads TKO at 2:09 of Round 1.
My read is that the takedown attempt decided the fight. MMA Mania noted Talbott’s size and reach advantage, and MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin described Figueiredo as a very undersized bantamweight at this stage. For the shorter man, the level change is the reset button. A shot launched from long range at a taller opponent who is already pressing gives that opponent time to see it coming, and a knee is the natural answer for someone standing tall and waiting for exactly that.
This matters for Talbott’s development because grappling is his known soft spot. He wrestled at Reno High School, but his only pro loss, a unanimous decision to Raoni Barcelos at UFC 311 in January 2025, came in a fight where he was largely controlled and outwrestled. Against Figueiredo he answered the shot with a strike rather than a sprawl and a stall, which is the right reflex for a striker. It’s also one shot, from a 38-year-old who has now lost three straight (Umar Nurmagomedov, then Song Yadong, now Talbott) and four of his last five. Figueiredo never made him defend a second one, so I’m filing the wrestling question under “improved, not answered.”
The trade at the end needs little explanation. Once the takedown failed, Figueiredo picked the worst option available against a longer, younger, fresher man and swung. Talbott didn’t need anything fancy. He kept him pinned on the fence and let the volume do the work.
What the win proves, and what it doesn’t
Talbott is 12-1 and 28, with back-to-back wins over former champions: a unanimous decision over Henry Cejudo at UFC 323 in December 2025, and now this. He told UFC News on X, “I’m a finisher at heart.”
MMA Fighting’s own staff wasn’t sold. Their roundtable argued he has beaten faded veterans. Lee said O’Malley would rinse him if the fight got booked soon, and Mike Heck said he wants to see Talbott against someone like Cory Sandhagen, Umar Nurmagomedov or Mario Bautista first. Jed Meshew was more generous and said Talbott seems to have learned a lot from the Barcelos loss. Heck also pointed out that Figueiredo spent fight week calling Talbott an easy fight. Essentially Sports noted that Talbott still sits outside the bantamweight top 15.
I land closer to Heck. The tools are obvious, and the opposition was soft.
The O’Malley problem, technically
In the cage with Joe Rogan, Talbott delivered the callout with a slip of the tongue: “Andrew Garfield, I mean, Sean O’Malley, you can’t run forever. Give the people what they want.” At the post-fight press conference he got more specific, tying the timing to the UFC 333 trilogy between champion Petr Yan and Merab Dvalishvili. “If I’m being transparent, if Merab wins then it’s a no-brainer. He’s already fought Merab plenty of times and lost. If Yan wins, then I don’t know we’ll have to see,” he said, as reported by MMA Fighting.
O’Malley answered on his Instagram story with a screenshot of his last seven opponents: “4 out of last 7 fights have been against 3 of the greatest bantamweights of all time. Ain’t duckin no one.” The receipts hold up. He beat Yan by split decision at UFC 280, stopped Aljamain Sterling at 0:51 of Round 2 at UFC 292, then lost twice to Dvalishvili, by decision at UFC 306 and by ninja choke at 4:42 of Round 3 at UFC 316. He has since beaten Song and Zahabi. He also called a report that he turned down Talbott for the White House card bullshit. Henry Cejudo, Talbott’s last victim before Figueiredo, has urged the UFC to stop protecting O’Malley and book it, Bloody Elbow reported.
The best stylistic summary came from Talbott himself. Back in 2024, speaking with Ariel Helwani after the Cameron Saaiman win, he said he would pressure O’Malley and try to make it a dogfight, while O’Malley works off feints, reactions and precision. This week he added: “Stylistically, I feel like we match up very well. I think I have a little bit more power. I think I have more muscle on my frame, and I think I’m just as quick because of my age.” He also said he does better against opponents with a frame like his own.
My read is that the pressure plan is the right idea and also the dangerous part. The Figueiredo finish came from walking down a smaller, stunned man who stood and traded. O’Malley’s entire game is built on making forward movement expensive. He draws reactions with feints and punishes the man who steps in on a line. Talbott won’t get the reach edge he had Saturday, so his pressure would have to come from feints and cutting off the cage rather than from length and the threat of the right hand. Ask me today and I’m picking O’Malley, likely late, because I haven’t yet seen Talbott pressure a precise counter-striker who is his size.
Talbott also said he’d rather fight often than sit for 10 months waiting on a name. If Dvalishvili beats Yan at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena on Oct. 24, Yahoo Sports floated Song as a possible next challenger, which would leave O’Malley without a title fight and Talbott with the opening he wants.
