""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.""
""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.""
Youssef Zalal (17-5-1) returns to the UFC spotlight to face Josh Emmett at UFC 320. Zalal spent a month in Morocco after his Calvin Kattar fight and returned to find the featherweight division reshuffled by moves such as Ilia Topuria moving up. Those changes narrowed matchup options and left Josh Emmett as the available opponent. Zalal says he has felt overlooked by top names, including champion Alexander Volkanovski, and intends to earn respect and advance his standing among featherweight contenders by defeating Emmett.
Read at Cageside Press
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