(R-L) Youssef Zalal of Morocco punches Peter Barrett in their featherweight fight during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on August 08, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Youssef Zalal believes going up against a top fighter gets the best out of him as he prepares for his next fight
Youssef Zalal was speaking to the UFC media before his next fight against Ilia Topuria at the weekend.
The Moroccan Devil is 10-2 in his MMA career so far but will face an undefeated fighter at Fight Island.
Zalal claimed that this would be a great fight for him and believed the pressure would be off the UFC debutant.
Zalal has three wins in the UFC already but a loss for Topuria might not hurt him all that much:
“It is your first fight and you want to come in and let it all out. Like you said, he wants to make a statement on me after he wins in the UFC and all that stuff.
“For him, it’s a win-win. If he loses, whatever, you lost to a guy who has three wins in the UFC.”
However, Zalal was confident of a great showing and claimed that fighting quality rivals gets the best out of him:
“For me, it is very weird to me, I am in a position where I want to prove a lot to myself. Facing a guy who is 8-0 kind of motivates me more and helps me more.”
The 24-year-old claimed that he performs better when going up against 8-0 kind of fighters when compared to fighting someone he is the favourite to beat.
However, Zalal kept on adding that he wanted to prove something to himself. The 24-year-old claimed that he didn’t listen to his coaches during one of the fights and wanted to ensure he follows their instructions in the next one.
Zalal ended by saying that this was going to be a fun fight, and it will be interesting to see if he picks up his fifth win on the spin Topuria gets his ninth win, and first in the UFC.
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