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ABU DHABI – Youssef Zalal is starting to realize he may get his wish of fighting Lerone Murphy next.
After making quick work of Josh Emmett by first-round submission at UFC 320 earlier this month, Zalal (18-5-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) is eager to jump into the featherweight title picture.
He insists Murphy (17-0-1 MMA, 9-0-1 UFC) is his perfect ticket to his desired destination, and recent developments suggest Zalal is not off in his callout.
“I want Murphy. I don’t know if he’s going to get the title shot – I have no clue,” Zalal told MMA Junkie. “And people want to talk about numbers and all this stuff. I can be real petty and talk about numbers. I can be like, I just beat a guy who he went five rounds with.
“He beat an unranked guy. So I can go on and on and on, but I don’t need that. I know my time will come, and I will be ready when my time has come. So I said Murphy, if not Yair (Rodriguez) or any of those top guys, but I hope somebody in the top five.”
With Rodriguez having just undergone surgery, Zalal has zoned in on Murphy as his most logical next opponent. Murphy recently alluded that he may not get his wish of being UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski’s next title challenger.
“That’s why I called him out. I was like, I don’t think they’re going to give it to him,” Zalal said of Murphy. “For me, I was like, look, I need to fight before Ramadan, so it’s got to be early February, late January. We’ll see.”
Murphy is coming of a spinning back elbow knockout of Aaron Pico at UFC 319. Prior to that, he beat common opponent Emmett in a five-round decision in his first headliner in April. Despite his insistence to face Murphy, Zalal acknowledges that the Brit is no easy task.
“That’s what excites me about this matchup. I said every fight I take it as a puzzle, and this is a very exciting puzzle,” Zalal said of Murphy. “This is a very difficult puzzle because he’s very technical, very well-rounded. He actually reminds me a lot of my style. I feel like I do a lot of things. I’m more grappling-heavy than him. I feel like it’s going to be a great show and finally get the chance to show, ‘Oh, Youssef is boring,’ and all that, and I get to shut these fans up again.”
