issue 218
July 2025
In conversation with E. Spencer Kyte, Youssef Zalal opens up about the grind of getting cut from the UFC, rebuilding from scratch, and what it really takes to earn that second chance.
Youssef Zalal moves and talks like the human embodiment of listening to a podcast on 2x speed. The few scattered pauses don’t last nearly as long as you need to keep up. Ironically, the only place he’s not moving quickly is the Octagon. The featherweight standout has been waiting on his next assignment since besting Calvin Kattar in February.
“I need a matchup!” Zalal boomed, chasing his words with a laugh during International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
He’d spent the previous days playfully messing with Jean Silva of the Fighting Nerds at various events. The ribbing and horseplay highlight the childlike ways of the 145-pound talents who have combined to win nine fights in as many appearances since 2024. Their ranking proximity has made the potential of a matchup between the two feel exciting, but it wasn’t meant to be. Silva was announced to be headlining Noche UFC opposite Diego Lopes, leaving Zalal searching for a dance partner.
“I’ve been asking for Brian Ortega,” says Zalal. “He got a fight. I’ve been asking for Lerone Murphy. I think he’s gonna fight. The only person in the rankings that don’t have a fight is Josh Emmett, and I would love to fight Josh Emmett. It’s a great experience, and to get to fight a guy like that would be dope. I would love to do that.”
Zalal sits two spots behind Emmett in the featherweight rankings, with the 40-year-old going 1-3 over his last four fights. These fighters feel like ships heading in opposite directions, so that it could be the right matchup for the ascending Moroccan.
A HOT START GOES COLD
Zalal earned seven wins in his first nine pro appearances. After a two-fight skid with a first-round flying knee finish of Jaime Hernandez, he got called up to the big leagues. He chased that decision win with two more against Dana White’s Contender Series alums to give him three wins in seven months on the roster. Next came an undefeated newcomer, Ilia Topuria, who outworked Zalal over three rounds and halted his win streak. The loss kicked off a string of negative results for Zalal, and he was released by the UFC less than two years later.
“I got told, ‘Your back is on the wall! You can’t lose this fight!” said Zalal, recalling the four-fight run without a victory that resulted in his release. “So, there is a lot of pressure that leads to not actually being myself and doing what I want, doing what I love, and what I need to do. Sometimes I forgot about that and plateaued in a way, didn’t have that need.This is what I need. This is what I want, and this is what I will do. When I got those three things and I really stuck to my faith, stuck to my training, my coaches, things cleared up, got better. I’m living the life right now, but the job’s not done. We got a lot of work to do.”
BACK ON THE GRIND
Some fighters hit pause when their dreams are dashed. They re-evaluate and lick their wounds. However, Zalal wasted no time getting back into the fray. Released in August 2022, ‘The Moroccan Devil’ won again in November. Two months later, he won again, and then a year after his last UFC appearance, Zalal won a unique one-night tournament that started with a boxing match before proceeding to kickboxing and closed with MMA. It earned Zalal a tryout for Season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter, but he didn’t make the cast and was an alternate. A crushing blow in the moment, but the best thing possible.
“That was amazing,” began Zalal, his mega-watt smile radiating. “The backstory was The Ultimate Fighter, where it was like, ‘I’m the backup,’ and all that stuff. To experience that and really live that, prove to myself, that was the biggest thing was to prove it to myself.”
Quarantillo was slated to face Miranda, who was removed from the card, opening the door for Zalal. Rather than coming back early in the prelims against an unheralded newcomer or struggling veteran looking to get straight, he was stepping in with a certified fan favorite on the main card. Straight away, it was clear that this wasn’t the same fighter who departed the promotion years earlier, and he collected a submission early in the second round. That kick started a fight win streak.
GROWTH AND LEARNING TO BE AN ADULT
What happened to Zalal was an all-too-common occurrence. A kid shows promise. Success pumps their tires, and everyone tells them. The positive results roll in. They believe their own hype, then life, or Ilia Topuria, stops them dead.
“You explained it perfectly,” Zalal chuckled when I explained the scenario above. “I got signed at a really young age. I had a hard time understanding that and experiencing that. You see it and it’s like, ‘Holy s***! This is what I have to go through as an adult?’”
When the results shifted from positive to negative, the pressure mounted, and Zalal stopped having fun.
“I think what it is, is that I forgot about the fun part of it,” he said. “I feel like sometimes we make this a job, and we overdo it. You come in and you’re not (into it as much), kinda out of it, and your energy bar starts going, your motivation bar starts dropping as well.”
While it could never have felt that way in the moment, getting released was probably the best thing that could have happened for the talented but struggling fighter. It forced him to grow as a fighter and as a man, producing nothing but positive results since. Not that Zalal is close to being done. Not by a long shot.
“The best part is the journey and learning the journey, and that’s what I’m grateful for,” he said, smiling as always. “It definitely took a lot, but there is a lot more to go.”
