Since joining the UFC roster in February, Youssef Zalal has already registered three win, and “The Moroccan Devil” is only just getting started.
Zalal is yet to have a full camp in the UFC, having accepted all three of his previous UFC fights on short notice. Those appearances saw him pick up wins over Austin Lingo, Jordan Griffin and, most recently, Peter Barrett at UFC on ESPN+ 32, all in the span of six months.
But Zalal (10-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) revealed he was already used to quick turnarounds and actually prefers them over a full camp.
“If you look at my regional (record), I still had this going on,” Zalal told MMA Junkie. “I understand people say it’s a lot harder, UFC, this and that. We’re fighters, who cares. At the end of the day, you have a game plan, you come in and everything changes and that’s where I feel like thrive a lot. Short notices come in, I don’t have to do so much thinking. I just go and fight.”
He continued, “That’s how I feel like, especially fighters, they always overthink everything. I overthink a lot of things and for me it’s like when a fight comes in, it’s fight time, let’s do it and let the coaches handle the rest. I’m just there to focus on me and really try and win this fight.”
Zalal is one of three Moroccan fighters currently on the UFC roster and, following his fast start in the promotion, he’s already received plenty of support from his home country. The Moroccan-born fighter happily sports the flag on his headband and even goes by the nickname, “The Moroccan Devil.”
Zalal says he’s aware of the benefits of having a nation behind you and, despite training out of Factory X in Colorado, he’s happy to continue putting Morocco on the UFC map.
“As soon as they heard UFC, these guys are insane,” Zalal said. “They’re crazy – non-stop support. I can’t tell you how many messages. I can’t go through it no more, it’s just ridiculous, and I’m very happy and blessed and grateful for that, to really have a community behind me and really supporting my career and my dream.
“It’s pretty cool to get to talk about that,” he continued. “That’s what I want. I want to bring that, I want to be like ‘OK, you talk about me, let’s talk about Morocco, let’s talk about what we bring to the table, let’s talk about our kickboxers, let’s talk about MMA now.”
Zalal wants to keep his momentum going, but has no opponent in mind for his next fight. He is content to keep taking things fight by fight, and is already aiming to compete again within the next month or two.
“Definitely, that’s my goal,” he said. “I’ve been blessed enough to not get hurt after these fights. I’ve had two fights in six weeks in the UFC. So for me it was like I’ve been blessed enough to really just use my youth and use my movement and my style to not really get hurt in fights, and I’ve been happy about that. The weight cut is not that much, it doesn’t do that much so, for us, we’ll be ready at any time and that’s all I focus on. I definitely want to get back in there in September (or) October. It doesn’t matter to me.”
Youssef Zalal happy to continue taking short-notice fights: 'That's where I thrive'
