Payton Talbott says he is nearing his prime but 'I don't have a name' before Figueiredo fight

Talbott has not fought since beating Henry Cejudo in December and says talks for fights in April, May and June fell through. He faces Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 332 on Saturday.

Payton Talbott says he still does not have a name despite nearing his prime, after months without a fight and days before he meets Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 332.

"I'm nearing my prime. I'm young. I'm healthy. I feel the strongest and fastest I've ever been. But I don't have a name," Talbott said on The Ariel Helwani Show. He said he had talks about fights in April, May and even June, but "things just never happen. I don't know exactly why... it's a little frustrating."

Talbott, 28, has not fought since he beat Henry Cejudo on a unanimous decision at UFC 323 in December. He faces Figueiredo at bantamweight in Salt Lake City, in a bout expected at about 01:00 UK and Irish time early on Sunday and shown on TNT Sports. Natalia Silva against Wang Cong for the women's flyweight title headlines the UFC 332 card.

Helwani called the UFC 332 card "somewhat maligned". "Criticism is always funny because I actually agree with Dana on this," Talbott said. "I'm like, the card hasn't happened. How do you know if it's a s***** card?... If you think it's a bad card, you probably haven't done your research... Last week, Raoni and Rosas were expected to be a snooze fest, and their fight was insane." He added: "I just hope people are able to tune in and at least give it the benefit of the doubt. You can turn it off after my fight. Just tune in for mine."

On Figueiredo, he said: "We were in talks with this for the better part of the year, and he ended up fighting Song earlier... I just wanted to fight. It didn't really matter who, honestly, but I'm glad he was a former champ... I'm sure he'll be crafty on Saturday night." In the United States the main card is on CBS, which Helwani said makes it the first entire UFC main card on the network. Talbott said he had only heard that on Monday.

Talbott said he had gone quiet this year, and his latest YouTube episode, the 12th, is titled "Ecdysis". "I feel like I've gone inward and become a bit of a new person this year. And I've shedded some skin, I've shedded some old habits, I've shedded some less productive ways of living," he said. "Honestly you'll see a lot of it Saturday night... We get to see these things when we're put under like hard tests. So I have one this weekend."

"I think I had like kind of a toxic trait of like trying to be in too many places at once, not sleeping," he said. "I'm like 28 years old, and I feel like I'm going to die in like a couple years... It's more about like, how well you do fewer things." He also said: "The older I get, the more scared I get of death... I'm very scared of death and it seems to get stronger and stronger the older I get."

On fame, he said: "It helps living in a small town... There's really f***ing weird people out there and for whatever reason I have the biggest magnet for weird people."

He also spoke about Raoni Barcelos, who beat him on points and was taken to hospital after his knockout loss to Raul Rosas Jr. at UFC Vegas 121. "When he took me down in our fight it was a very similar angle," Talbott said. "The back of my head clipped the cage and that's like what made the vertigo like get really bad in the last round. So my first thought was like, oh maybe it's like crazy vertigo." He said Rosas Jr. "did sort of earn the win" with his fifth round.

Helwani also showed photos of Talbott hanging off tall buildings with "no harness, no safety thing, no nothing", which Talbott called free solo. "I think the highest I ever climbed was like a thousand feet," he said, and joked: "Rumor has it that that's actually AI. It's not even me."

He said the climbing helps him before fights. "I think it's good to familiarize yourself with that weird feeling in your gut when you're looking down like that far below. It's like very similar to when you're walking out for a fight."

The reaction to the photos annoyed him. "I posted that and people were like... f***ing pissed me off. I was like, you just can't enjoy the picture," he said. "It's funny that people give me a lot of s*** for stuff like that because I feel like when Alex Honnold is free soloing up El Cap... it's like way more accepted... Climbing buildings is much safer than a rock that is subject to withering in nature... People are like, oh what the f*** is he doing, he's an idiot, and it's just like, well, you guys don't give Alex Honnold s***."

Asked whether a climb or a cage fight excites him more, he said: "Definitely a cage fight, there's nothing like beating another man." He added: "I'm no free spirit, Ariel... I lock myself in a cage and I fight other men. I do all these crazy adrenaline-seeking things. I'm not free at all."

Helwani also asked what he made of Luis Hernandez's celebration after his UFC debut win. "I did catch a little of the gyration. I think he could maybe use some work in separating the two hips... A lot of circular motion. I need to see a little bit of separation," Talbott said. "If you're going to do it, just sell out. Give me some variations with the twerkage."

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