Regional MMA, particularly in this era of streaming media and UFC Fight Pass, plays more important of a role in the development of a prospect now than it ever has before. To that extent, Fight Pass also makes it exponentially easier for major promotions, such as the UFC, to find out who’s hot and who’s not in the cage.
In less than a full year’s time, it appears that the UFC has its next big superstar. Let’s flashback to March of 2023 for a moment.
At that point, Payton Talbott (9-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) was defending the A1 Combat Bantamweight Championship in the A1 Combat 9 main event.