UFC bantamweight star Payton Talbott is fighting on two fronts—one in the octagon, the other in the cultural mind-warp that still thinks a crop top can end Western civilization.
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In a sport often dominated by chest-thumping, MAGA hat-wearing, performatively heterosexual machismo, Talbott is a breath of glittery, techno-infused air. A 10-1 record, creative YouTube montages, and an affection for house music (and possibly Frank Ocean)? This isn’t your uncle’s UFC. Hell, it’s barely Dana White’s.
Talbott is not just redefining what it means to be a fighter—he’s dismantling the UFC’s meathead mythos one irreverent crop top at a time.
“It just makes me laugh really hard when people are like, ‘This is detrimental to our culture! It’s not good for kids to see a guy in a super masculine sport wearing a crop top!’” Talbott told The New York Times. “We’re all in the cage wearing the same three choices of shorts and gloves and that’s it.”
But if you think Payton’s playing some kind of ironic performance art—he’s not. He’s just living his life. You know, the way actual humans do.
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“Why do I have to be manly?”
In his Times profile, Talbott challenged the archaic logic of gender performance in pro sports.
“I just think in my head, like—why do I have to be manly? Why does my image and what I wear have anything to do with my fighting? And even if it did–what do you care?”
It’s a fair question. Especially in a league that still platformed Sean Strickland and Bryce Mitchell after some of the most ignorant, anti-gay tirades this side of a Facebook uncle with a Marlboro filter.
Dana White, the UFC president-slash-Tr*mp confidant-slash-cage-match enthusiast, has refused to discipline them. (Though to his credit, White offered a rare moment of Switzerland, telling the Times, “I love people whoever they are.”)
That’s all background noise to Talbott.
He’s well aware of the Reddit threads, the comment section sewer dives, and the DM bro-rants. But he’s unmoved.
“Who I’m trying to have sex with is none of your business, unless I’m trying to have sex with you,” he said, neatly folding decades of queer erasure and toxic curiosity into one immaculate mic drop.
So… about Frank Ocean.
Frank Ocean doesn’t do public relationships. He doesn’t do much public anything, except when it involves Talbott.
Earlier this year, Ocean posted two intimate (but not too intimate) photos of the fighter on Instagram. One featured Talbott cooking pre-fight. Another showed him bundled up on Valentine’s Day. Mutual appreciation? Or something more?
In response, Talbott shared a shirtless Ocean crouched in a gym, soundtracked by the Red Hot Chili Peppers—a song that somehow says everything and nothing, like any good crush should.
They’ve never confirmed a romance. Talbott has previously said their bond is built on respect. “We hung out a couple times and just had a lot of appreciation for each other in our respected careers,” he said. “The universe just connects people.”
It’s all very modern, very nuanced, and probably infuriating for people who need neatly labeled boxes for their man crushes.
When the Times asked for clarification, Talbott declined.
“I don’t feel like I owe anyone anything,” he said. “I think I’m just going to try to be myself and the people who get it will get it.”
A New Kind of Role Model
For queer fans—or anyone bored to death by the straightwashed UFC status quo—Talbott is an anomaly worth celebrating.
He’s proof that masculinity is not a monolith, that creativity and aggression can co-exist, and that self-expression doesn’t need permission slips from corporate PR or the Joe Rogan commentariat.
He’s not here to educate your uncle or be your gay best friend. He’s here to fight, vibe, and post thirst traps with Frank Ocean lyrics hidden in the captions.
And really, what’s gayer—and more badass—than that?
Source: LowKickMMA and NYTimes
The funny part is that it is so easy to imagine people wholesomely watching MMA with their children and having to explain why it is wrong for a guy to wear a crop top, completely missing out on the irony of how it might not be healthy for them to be exposed to that much violence.
SPOT ON!