Youssef Zalal has seen his profession do a fairly main 180-degree turnaround the previous few years.
The 36-year-old Moroccan featherweight received his first three fights within the UFC by determination, however then had three straight choices losses and a draw and located himself on the outs and attempting to get again in.
In late 2022, he began a three-fight end streak for Sparta Fight League and received again to the UFC 9 months in the past. Since then, he’s had three straight submission finishes and two bonuses.
However forward of his subsequent massive check, Zalal provides a variety of credit score to his first UFC loss as a studying expertise. It got here towards present featherweight champion and 2024 Male Fighter of the 12 months Ilia Topuria.
“He’s the rationale why I fought to get again to the UFC as quickly as I received kicked out of the UFC,” Zalal advised MMA Junkie Radio. “He grew to become a champion like a yr after, and that was my full motivator, my soul, the man that I’m coming after. That’s actually who I’m coming after. It doesn’t matter. Clearly, I do know the problem to go there. It’s going to be loads.
“… There’s a variety of names are going to return my approach that I actually must face and undergo. However one hundred pc, that is at all times snapped in again in my head: OK, I fought the champion of the world. Clearly he received higher, so my foremost factor is to enhance my talent and attempting to get to that stage and catch as much as that man and and actually present what I’m about and present all of the issues that I stated and I’ll do.”
In 2024, Zalal stopped Billy Quarantillo, Jarno Errens and Jack Shore, and subsequent takes on longtime contender Calvin Kattar at UFC Struggle Evening 251 on Feb. 15 on the UFC Apex in Las Vegas (ESPN+).
This present six-fight tear with six finishes, together with 4 within the first spherical, is a serious departure from his first run within the UFC – which noticed him in seven straight 15-minute grinders.
The loss to the champ got here in Topuria’s UFC debut. The very fact he went the gap with him could be an ethical victory. The one different fighter to keep away from a end towards Topuria in his profession is Josh Emmett, who took him 25 minutes in a Struggle of the Evening headliner one bout earlier than Topuria received the belt towards Alexander Volkanovski.
“The most important lesson is expertise,” Zalal stated. “I really feel like individuals overlook about that. You may inform the distinction between an thrilling, younger, hungry man after which an skilled man. … That’s the largest factor I took from my first run within the UFC, after which the second run, … it’s like you’ve gotten expertise behind you after which simply having enjoyable and a blast and doing what you like, which is combat in entrance of tens of millions of individuals. That excites me. I wish to be that showman that everyone talks about.”
For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC Struggle Evening 251.
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