Las Vegas – UFC featherweight Youssef Zalal scored a decision victory over Calvin Kattar at UFC Vegas 102 on Saturday night, but he may have gotten some added fuel from someone on his opponent’s team.
“This is at the weigh-ins. I’m sitting there, we’re having a great time, I’m being respectful and all that stuff,” Zalal told reporters including Cageside Press at his post-fight scrum.
“I got my Jiu-Jitsu coach saying, ‘Let’s go Yousy!’ and all I hear is ‘light work! light work! light work’ and I said okay bet. Alright. Let’s see how light work this sh*t is. Might as well call me f*cking heavyweight now.”
Zalal (17-5-1) didn’t know exactly who on Kattar’s team said it and he didn’t care. It was fuel to the fire for the fight at that point.
“I don’t know if it’s his girl, his family, or whatever the hell it is man. Don’t be running your f*cking mouth when you’re not fighting, you know what I mean? Light work my ass. You can find out. My little Pikachu ass you can’t even f*cking catch,” he said.
“That’s just my message. I hope they watch this and they can go cry about it or do nothing about it. This sport is very humbling and very dangerous.”
That wasn’t the only concerning part about the matchup. During grappling exchanges Zalal felt Kattar’s legs be particularly slippery.
“This is the crazy part. We worked a lot of grappling. I sh*t you not I felt like there’s vaseline all over his legs. It was the most slipperiest guy I ever seen in my life. I’m not trying to be that guy to be like oh, this, this, this and that, but man that was suspicious,” said Zalal.
“I’m like alright bro. Nobody slides like that, that quick. I fought a lot of good guys. Jack Shore and all those guys and I felt when you’re dry, and all that stuff. There’s no way. It is what it is. You can cheat this sport you can do whatever you want. At the end of the day is I’m doing me and that’s what’s going to get me to the top.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Youssef Zalal above.
