Youssef Zalal coach discusses the incredible career turnaround

Youssef Zalal went from the Cup by the UFC to a classified featherweight competitor.

Zalal (17-5-1 MMA, 7-3-1 UFC) launched its first mandate UFC 3-0. However, he lost three in a row – including a decision at Ilia Topuria, followed by a majority draw which led to his release from the UFC.

During his time away from the octagon, Zalal participated in a day competition, which included three combat sports: boxing, kickboxing and MMA. Zalal won the three fights and the tournament before receiving a short -term call to bring back his UFC.

Zalal submitted Billy Quarantillo, Jarno Errens and Jack Shore before drawing the perennial candidate Calvin Kattar at the UFC Fight Night 251 in February. Zalal won the fight by unanimous decision. His head coach Marc Montoya explains how Zalal was able to change his career.

“With Youssef, we were very successful at the start of his first round in the UFC, he had 3-0,” MMA Junkie Radio told MMA. “Unfortunately, he took some failure after that. Some were short -term stuff, some were a certain inexperience, and a game was only timing, and that simply did not work. So where I saw it the most, it was on the regional scene. He made this tournament where he was fighting three times in one night.

“You first box, you do second kickboxing, then you do the MMA third. If you lose the boxing match, you are not paid for money. If you win the kickboxing match, you are moving towards MMA. But, if you lose the kickboxing match, you are also paid. The risk there was super high, but what I saw in the formation there was just its evolution leading to all this. Not only physically, but mentally.

Zalal is now found in the UFC featherweight ranking after his victory over Kattar. Montoya had the 28 -year -old Moroccan level during the training camp.

“When we just fought Kattar, I brought Olympic level boxers for him,” said Montoya. “He trained with (Justin) Gaethje and (Cory) Sandhant, and of course all his teammates at the X factory. But we just put all these obstacles in front of him and allow him to work through part of this. It is not as if he was still successful instantly in all of this.

“But what he learned from his first passage to the UFC is that if I will fail, I have to learn from my failure, and I can do it quickly. I do not need to wait until I get into the cage to do it, and I think it is one of the things that helped him a lot in his mental transition to happen where he is now. “”