has been quite vocal about his desire for a title shot<\/a>, although he\u2019s only riding a one-fight win streak ahead of his showdown against Zalal this weekend.<\/p>\nBut Zalal understands why Sterling \u2014 who turns 37 in July \u2014 has been so adamant about getting that opportunity at this stage of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the obstacle to see who exactly is going to get the title shot. It\u2019s respect,\u201d Zalal told MMA Fighting. \u201cI don\u2019t blame him, let me just say this. Because of the age that he\u2019s at and how much time he has left, I don\u2019t think I can blame him and I still think he\u2019s the most dangerous oldest guy in that division. Him and [Alexander Volkanovski] I think they\u2019re [two] of the most dangerous guys. Just because they\u2019re so good at one thing or they\u2019re so good at everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that\u2019s his life. I don\u2019t know what his life is. All I can do is focus on me and focus on what he\u2019s going to bring to table and what I bring to the table as well. That\u2019s my main focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
A loss would be devastating for Sterling\u2019s hope to jump into title contention, but the same could be said for Zalal, especially after he\u2019s built an impressive five-fight win streak since returning to the UFC. Zalal has beaten a pair of top 15 ranked fighters in his past two outings, and Sterling would serve as the third if he wins again on Saturday.<\/p>\n
That said, Zalal acknowledges that winning isn\u2019t always good enough, especially when it comes to how the UFC picks and chooses who gets the next title shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to steal that show before anybody else does,\u201d Zalal said. \u201cThat\u2019s my plan. I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for. The Josh Emmett thing, I go out and submit him and then Kevin [Vallejos] just knocked him out. So that steals the show a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ve got to go out show that show! I think it\u2019s the battle of that game right now that\u2019s going on. I think it\u2019s the golden ticket to my title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n
On paper, Zalal and Sterling are two of the top grapplers in the featherweight division and often times that leads to a striking battle because neither fighter wants to give up an inch on the ground.<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s ready for anything and everything, Zalal admits it would mean a little bit more if he could go out there and dominant the grappling exchanges with Sterling. The real exclamation point on top would be securing a submission and becoming the first person to tap out Sterling or put him to sleep.<\/p>\n
If he\u2019s trying to jump the line into title contention with one more win, Zalal couldn\u2019t imagine a better way to get there than finishing Sterling via submission.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, this one makes me excited,\u201d Zalal said. \u201cThat\u2019s that the puzzle is. I want to be the first guy to submit him. That\u2019s my thing. That\u2019s what excites me about this whole thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a delusional sport sometimes but you\u2019ve also got to be real. It\u2019s a five-round fight. I\u2019m ready for the five rounds. I\u2019m going to be ready for the grappling. I\u2019m going to be ready to test my grappling and test my striking. What a story would that be! I submitted Josh Emmett, only the second guy to do it. Submitted Billy [Quarantillo], the only guy to do it to this day. [Submitting] Aljamain Sterling, I\u2019d be the only guy to ever do it. I think the book would be beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Youssef Zalal hasn\u2019t been screaming for a title shot just yet, but his upcoming opponent Aljamain Sterling has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-630368","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-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630368","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=630368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}