Youssef Zalal went from being cut by the UFC to a ranked featherweight contender.
Zalal (17-5-1 MMA, 7-3-1 UFC) kicked off his first UFC tenure 3-0. However, he went on to lose three straight – including a decision to Ilia Topuria, followed by a majority draw that led to his UFC release.
During his time away from the octagon, Zalal took part in a one-day competition, which included three combat sports: Boxing, kickboxing, and MMA. Zalal won all three fights and the tournament before getting a short-notice call to make his UFC return.
Zalal submitted Billy Quarantillo, Jarno Errens, and Jack Shore before drawing perennial contender Calvin Kattar at UFC Fight Night 251 in February. Zalal won the bout by unanimous decision. His head coach, Marc Montoya, explains how Zalal was able to turn his career around.
“With Youssef, we had a lot of success early in his first run in the UFC, he was 3-0,” Montoya told MMA Junkie Radio. “Unfortunately he caught some failure after that. Some of it was short-notice stuff, some of it was some inexperience, and some of it was just timing, and it just didn’t work out. So, where I saw it the most was on the regional scene. He did this tournament where he would fight three times in one night.
“You box first, you do kickboxing second, and then you do MMA third. If you lose the boxing match, you don’t get paid any money. If you win the kickboxing match, you advance to MMA. But, if you lose the kickboxing match, you get paid very little, as well. The risk there was super high, but what I saw in the training there was just his evolution already leading up to all of that. Not just physically, but mentally.”
Zalal now finds himself in the UFC’s featherweight rankings after his win over Kattar. Montoya had the 28-year-old Moroccan level up during training camp.
“When we just fought Kattar, I brought in Olympic-level boxers for him,” Montoya said. “He trained with (Justin) Gaethje and (Cory) Sandhagen, and of course all his teammates at Factory X. But we just put all these obstacles in front of him and allowed him to work through some of that. It’s not like he always succeeds in all of it instantly.
“But what he’s learned from his first stint in the UFC was, if I’m going to fail, I’ve got to learn from my failure, and I can do that quickly. I don’t need to wait until I get in the cage to do that, and I think that’s one of the things that’s helped him a lot in his mental transition to get to where he is now.”
