“The Moroccan Devil” Youssef Zalal discusses cornering teammates and his MMA journey
One of the top prospects in the featherweight division, Youssef Zalal recently impressed with a submission win at LFA 39 against Daniel Soto, it was his third straight submission. He improved to 5-0 and has now finished everyone of his professional fights.
The hype has started and the Factory X product says he is enjoying it.
“This is nothing yet, I know there is more to come. I know More opportunities will come to me and I can showcase my skills,” “The Moroccan Devil” said. “They haven’t seen all my skills yet, they’ve only seen my ground game.”
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Though he doesn’t have a fight lined up, Zalal has been extremely busy helping his teammates out. Before his fight he flew to South Dakota to help corner Sid Bice in his flyweight title fight for LFA. Most recently, Zalal went to New York to help corner Steven Siler at PFL 1. It was a dramatic fight that saw Siler pull out the win by armbar. Zalal remembers the craziness of the fight and what advice he was trying to give during the fight.
“Mainly we were telling him to recover. That was the main thing. I mean he recovered pretty well. We thought the fight was over.”
“He loves the ground so, we kinda told him relax breath, breath. He kept wanting to go for submissions but we were like breath just relax, get your breath back and then he followed every step after that, surprisingly he still listened so that was good.”
The experience of travelling and helping coach his teammates has been a great education for him, Zalal said.
“It’s definitely helping me a lot. I mean, I get to see a lot of things that you don’t get to see as a fighter.”.
“I’ve been coaching and teaching classes and all this since my pro career started. It’s been helping me a lot.”
The one thing that bothers him while coaching is that each time it makes him want to get in the cage.
“Oh man, I was almost getting heated, like let’s go put me back in there.”
Zalal has been celebrating Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, which ended on June 15. During Ramadan, he could only eat and drink before sunrise and after sunset. Zalal said it was a challenge to train during that time period.
“It definitely has its challenges sometimes but I’m kinda being smart this time when it comes to Ramadan. Not too crazy, I’m not sparring to be honest at all this month.”
The Moroccan Devil is looking to get back into the cage in July. He also mentioned he is open to all opportunities that come his way, whether it’s the PFL or Bellator. But, he’d prefer to be in the UFC.
“I’d prefer the UFC, but I mean, if the opportunity came in it came in but if it doesn’t it doesn’t. If the PFL showed up I’ll be there. It’s no matter to me, I’ve fought two hours’ notice before, it’s nothing new to me.”
For Zalal, it’s all about patience right now.
“My time will come, you can’t rush nothing.”
