Payton Talbott: Skateboarding is Harder on the Body Than Fighting

Payton Talbott claims skateboarding takes even more of a toll on the body than fighting.

MMA and skateboarding appear to have a sort of connection, with fighters like Luke Rockhold, Kron Gracie, Andre Fili and several others having dabbled in the sport. Skateboarding is also one of Talbott’s talents.

UFC lightweight Jalin Turner, who is another skateboarding enthusiast, previously said that the sport takes a bigger toll on the body than fighting. Talbott agreed with that claim, explaining that a fall on concrete hits harder than any shot in a fight. Talbott also claimed to know of several MMA fighters’ careers jeopardized by skateboarding.

“Skateboarding [hurts the body more], for sure,” Talbott said during a post-fight media scrum following UFC 303. “Nobody hits harder than concrete. Skateboarding has derailed so many fighters’ careers.”

Talbott knocked out opponent Yanis Ghemmouri in 19 seconds at UFC 303 on Saturday to score his third consecutive finish in as many promotional outings. Supremely confident going into the fight, the bantamweight prospect had even laid down a winning strategy for his opponent. However, Talbott was admittedly a little disappointed at how short the fight was, as he wanted to put on more of a display.

“Yeah, a little bit. I just gave him a second to get back up, because I was like, obviously didn’t want it to end that fast,” Talbott said. “But I saw his head snap back, so, I was like, OK, you gotta finish the job at that point.”

Talbott called out Adrian Yanez after his UFC 303 win. Elaborating on his callout, Talbott said that he expects “fireworks” out of the potential matchup.

“I just think that’s a dog fight,” he said. “It’s a tough fight and we would put on a really good show and it would just be fireworks. So I’m all for it. I respect the dude.”