Henry Cejudo almost made his opponent cry with touching Dana White gesture after UFC 323

Henry Cejudo left Payton Talbott fighting back tears as he immediately paid tribute to the youngster after their fight on Saturday.

The 27-year-old dominated Cejudo over three rounds at UFC 323, winning a unanimous decision in what ended up being the former two-weight world champion’s final fight. But bloodied and beaten, the retiring Olympic medalist made his way over to Dana White and pleaded with him to ‘take care’ of his opponent.

Talbott is one of the hottest prospects in the bantamweight division, and has overcome his first career defeat against Raoni Barcelos back in January at UFC 311. He came back with a win over Felipe Lima before a career-best performance against Cejudo.

• Who is Henry Cejudo? ‘Triple-C’ was an Olympic gold medallist and UFC double-champ

Payton Talbott almost cried after Henry Cejudo gesture to Dana White

Despite the fact that he won every round with ease, Payton Talbott was happy to ‘cede almost the entire post-fight to Henry Cejudo’s retirement announcement. He received a beautiful tribute video, and was even given an unofficial $50,000 bonus by Dana White.

Now, getting the chance to share the stage on his own on Ariel Helwani’s show on Uncrowned, Talbott noted just how special Cejudo’s gesture was to him. “I saw that on social media after the fight,” Talbott said.

“That actually meant a lot to me and almost made me kind of tear up, man. I don’t really be crying too often but that was [surprising]. To think of somebody other than yourself in that moment is pretty huge. Henry gets all kinds of flak, but at his core, man, he is a very generous guy, and a solid dude, man.

“He had to be the villain for whatever reason because it was like sports entertainment or whatever he had within him and stuff. But I know that guy and he’s a really good human.” However, he refused to apologize for referring to the aging former champion as ‘Old Yeller’ pre-fight.