{"id":626364,"date":"2026-04-23T19:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626364\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:44:10","slug":"youssef-zalal-aims-to-steal-aljamain-sterlings-resume-at-ufc-vegas-116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626364\/","title":{"rendered":"Youssef Zalal aims to &#8216;steal&#8217; Aljamain Sterling&#8217;s resume at UFC Vegas 116"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Youssef Zalal wants to catapult himself to the top of the UFC featherweight division, and he thinks beating Aljamain Sterling would give him a big resume boost.<\/p>\n<p>Zalal and Sterling are scheduled to clash in the UFC Vegas 116 main event on Saturday. It\u2019s by far the biggest bout in Zalal\u2019s pro MMA career. For Sterling, it\u2019s an opportunity to set a young contender back while making a case for a title shot. \u201cFunk Master\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ufc\/aljamain-sterling-thinks-he-can-earn-title-shot-against-alexander-volkanovski-with-ufc-vegas-116-win\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">believes he can face reigning 145-pound champion Alexander Volkanovski next with an impressive outing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters during the UFC Vegas 116 media day, Zalal said that while his accolades don\u2019t compare to Sterling\u2019s, he plans to take some of that shine for himself (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/04\/22\/ufc-vegas-116-youssef-zalal-out-to-steal-aljamain-sterlings-resume\/89742472007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MMAJunkie<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, it\u2019s making my resume look small as sh*t,\u201d Zalal said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty crazy, I saw they were like, \u2018Ah, Youssef hasn\u2019t fought nobody. The only win he has is Josh Emmett,\u2019 and all this stuff. They\u2019re like, \u2018(Calvin) Kattar is 0-5,\u2019 and all this. I was like, \u2018Those guys fought those guys as well! I don\u2019t know what to tell you!\u2019 This is my time, I was young, these guys are in the f*cking UFC. I was like, it is what it is \u2013 but that\u2019s the beauty of this sport. You get to go against a guy like that, beat him, and you get to steal his resume pretty much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Zalal is riding an eight-fight winning streak. He scored a first-round submission finish over Josh Emmett back in Oct. 2025. Prior to that victory, he earned a unanimous decision over Calvin Kattar. It\u2019s the only fight where Zalal has gone the distance throughout his winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>What is your final prediction for the UFC Vegas 116 headliner between Youssef Zalal and Aljamain Sterling? Tell us in the comments below, and stick with BJPenn.com for live coverage of Saturday\u2019s event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Youssef Zalal wants to catapult himself to the top of the UFC featherweight division, and he thinks beating&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-626364","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}