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Raoni Barcelos Upsets Massive Favorite Payton Talbott in UFC 311 Featured Prelim

Barcelos was a massive underdog heading into his matchup with Talbott.

Drew Beaupre

(Zuffa LLC)

The featured prelim for UFC 311 featured rising star Payton Talbott taking on the biggest test of his young career against Raoni Barcelos.

Barcelos Takes Talbott's Undefeated Record

Most of the attention leading up to the UFC's first Pay-Per-View event of the year was understandably focused on the card's bantamweight and lightweight title bouts, but Talbott was arguably the fighter that received the biggest promotional push from the organization outside of those main and co-main event matchups.

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Entering the Barcelos matchup with an undefeated record and three stoppage-wins out of three Octagon appearances, Talbott was lined as the biggest pre-event favorite at UFC 311 before Renato Moicano stepped up for a short-notice title bid against Islam Makhachev.

Longtime UFC veteran Barcelos represented a significant step up in competition for the 26-year-old, and the Brazilian wasted little time before he decided to test Talbott's takedown defense and skills on the mat.

Talbott did well to escape some dangerous submission attempts during the course of a dominant opening round for Barcelos, but after landing a few clean punches to start the second frame he once again found himself on his back.

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The two men briefly returned to their feet following a scramble before Barcelos landed another takedown and quickly moved into mount. Another brief sequence on the feet saw Talbott land a few more clean strikes, but the second round ended with Barcelos in top position.

Clearly in need of a finish if he wanted to preserve his undefeated record, Talbott gave it his all in the third frame but was unable to solve Barcelos' grappling and ultimately lost a unanimous decision to give the Brazilian back-to-back victories.

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The UFC 311 prelims opened with five-straight decisions before Bogdan Guskov submitted short-notice replacement and promotional debutant Billy Elekana. Azamat Bekoev had more luck in his own debut when he flatlined Zach Reese in the opening round, which took place just before Barcelos closed out the preliminary portion of the card with his massive upset against Talbott.

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Drew Beaupre
DREW BEAUPRE

Drew is an MMA writer that regularly watches regional events in addition to major promotions such as the UFC, PFL, Bellator, and ONE Championship. He joined MMA Knockout when it was founded in 2023.

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