The line between mentor and student blurred the moment Henry Cejudo and Payton Talbott touched gloves at UFC 323. What started as a friendly dynamic in training suddenly flipped under the bright lights of T-Mobile Arena, and by the end of the night, Talbott wasn’t just outworking his mentor, he was cracking jokes at his expense.

Talbott delivered a career-best performance last week at the T-Mobile Arena, picking apart Henry Cejudo in almost every round. He outworked ‘Triple C’ in a three-round barn burner, landing 134 significant strikes and scoring a knockdown in the process. After the fight, Cejudo’s face showed visible damage, while Talbott looked almost untouched except for his calf. However, after the win, the bantamweight contender ended up hurting his own face during the celebration. Using that moment, Talbott then joked that his celebration injury caused more damage to his face than Cejudo’s strikes. 

Payton Talbott claims his UFC 323 win celebration did more damage than Henry Cejudo’s. 

“Yeah, bro, that was a bad botch. I realized later I landed the calf he was tearing up. That’s why I had zero pop. Normally, I land that all the time. I actually have a scratch now, because that’s the worst damage I took,” Payton Talbott told Ariel Helwani.

Now, what kind of celebration was Talbott having to cause that injury? It was actually called a butterfly twist, a move commonly seen in martial arts and parkour videos, mainly used to show off acrobatics. Since the 27-year-old’s calf was compromised, he ended up landing on his face instead of his feet, while crediting Cejudo for damaging the calf in the first place. 

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“I was trying to do a B-twist, or butterfly twist as they call it. I would’ve done like a 180-degree turn like a spin and 360 like rotating underneath myself. I used to do it after training all the time. My foot just had no pop, man. Like, Henry kicks hard,” Talbott added on the Ariel Helwani show.

Well, Payton Talbott definitely kept that competitive energy alive with the former champ. But after taking that small dig at Henry Cejudo, he also admitted that Cejudo’s post-fight speech, which included a meaningful shout to him, actually made him emotional.  

Talbott shares getting emotional during Triple C’s post-fight speech  

Ahead of the UFC 323 matchup, Henry Cejudo stayed open about Payton Talbott stepping into his shoes. ‘Triple C’ even said he wanted Talbott to carry the ‘King of Cringe’ persona after his retirement. In many ways, the former two-division champion passed the baton to a young fighter he believes has the potential to do something big, which Cejudo explained during his post-fight retirement speech as well.

Cejudo sounded hopeful while talking about Talbott becoming a future superstar, and that gesture from a legend of the sport touched the 27-year-old’s heart. Talbott later revealed that he was almost on the verge of tears after hearing those words from his mentor.

“I saw that on social media after that. Actually meant a lot to me and almost made me tear up. Man, I don’t really be crying too often. Honestly, to think of somebody other than yourself in that moment is pretty huge. Henry gets all kinds of flak, but at his core, he’s a very generous guy,” Talbott said in his interview with Ariel Helwani.

It looks like the bantamweight contender had his own Israel Adesanya and Anderson Silva moment last weekend, sharing a heartfelt exchange with a champion he admired for years.

With that said, as Payton Talbott prepares to move toward top-tier bantamweight contenders after his win, what do you think comes next for him? And do you think Henry Cejudo becomes a permanent member of his corner, or is he training for a White House return? Let us know in the comments section below.