After clawing his way back into the UFC spotlight, Youssef Zalal is set to prove he belongs among the featherweight elite when he steps into the octagon against Josh Emmett at UFC 320 this Saturday night.
Zalal (17-5-1) described how his next matchup quickly took shape once he came back from a month overseas. He explained how shifting pieces in the featherweight division narrowed his options.
“The crazy part is, after my fight with (Calvin) Kattar, I literally went to Morocco for a month and then came back. I was kind of scoping around to see who we’re going to fight,” Zalal told reporters including Cageside Press on Wednesday.
“The whole division was messed up because of all the things that happened with Ilia (Topuria) moving up and all that. I was like okay who’s the only guy that was open? The only guy that was open was Josh Emmett.”
Zalal didn’t hold back when asked about his place in the featherweight title picture ahead of UFC 320. The Moroccan standout made it clear he’s felt overlooked by the division’s biggest names, including the champion himself.
“I’ve feel like I’ve just been disrespected the last few months. Specially the champ (Alexander Volkanovski). Champ did an interview saying, oh there’s a lot of potential guys, there’s Aljamain (Sterling), Diego (Lopes) Movsar (Evloev), and all these guys and never brought up my name,” he said.
“I was like alright. So it’s time for me to put some respect in this name.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Youssef Zalal above. He takes on Josh Emmett at UFC 320 on Saturday night.
