Youssef Zalal gets motivation from 15 minutes with UFC champ Ilia Topuria

Youssef Zalal has seen his career do a pretty major 180-degree turnaround the past few years.

The 36-year-old Moroccan featherweight won his first three fights in the UFC by decision, but then had three straight decisions losses and a draw and found himself on the outs and trying to get back in.

In late 2022, he started a three-fight finish streak for Sparta Combat League and got back to the UFC nine months ago. Since then, he’s had three straight submission finishes and two bonuses.

But ahead of his next big test, Zalal gives a lot of credit to his first UFC loss as a learning experience. It came against current featherweight champion and 2024 Male Fighter of the Year Ilia Topuria.

“He’s the reason why I fought to get back to the UFC as soon as I got kicked out of the UFC,” Zalal told MMA Junkie Radio. “He became a champion like a year after, and that was my full motivator, my soul, the guy that I’m coming after. That’s literally who I’m coming after. It doesn’t matter. Obviously, I know the challenge to go there. It’s going to be a lot.

“… There’s a lot of names are going to come my way that I really have to face and go through. But 100 percent, this is always snapped in back in my head: OK, I fought the champion of the world. Obviously he got better, so my main thing is to improve my skill and trying to get to that level and catch up to that guy and and really show what I’m about and show all the things that I said and I will do.”

In 2024, Zalal stopped Billy Quarantillo, Jarno Errens and Jack Shore, and next takes on longtime contender Calvin Kattar at UFC Fight Night 251 on Feb. 15 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas (ESPN+).

This current six-fight tear with six finishes, including four in the first round, is a major departure from his first run in the UFC – which saw him in seven straight 15-minute grinders.

The loss to the champ came in Topuria’s UFC debut. The fact he went the distance with him might be a moral victory. The only other fighter to avoid a finish against Topuria in his career is Josh Emmett, who took him 25 minutes in a Fight of the Night headliner one bout before Topuria won the belt against Alexander Volkanovski.

“The biggest lesson is experience,” Zalal said. “I feel like people forget about that. You can tell the difference between an exciting, young, hungry guy and then an experienced guy. … That’s the biggest thing I took from my first run in the UFC, and then the second run, … it’s like you have experience behind you and then just having fun and a blast and doing what you love, which is fight in front of millions of people. That excites me. I want to be that showman that everybody talks about.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 251.