Aljamain Sterling is not taking Youssef Zalal lightly.
Former champion Sterling (20-5 MMA, 17-5 UFC) meets streaking featherweight Zalal (18-5-1 MMA, 8-3-1 UFC) in the UFC Fight Night 274 main event on April 25 at the Meta APEX (Paramount+).
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Sterling and Zalal share mutual respect after having trained together on multiple occasions.
“I think it’s a fantastic matchup,” Sterling said of Zalal on his YouTube channel. “He’s high level. I think he’s one of the harder guys to beat in the division, if I’m being 100 percent honest. “You look at a guy like Movsar (Evloev), you look at a guy like Zalal. He can move his feet a lot better than a lot of these guys. He’s hard to hit. I think when it comes to the two of us, both of us do a good job of avoiding damage and being able to damage, and that’s the name of our game. … We’re on the same page: We like to fight pretty.
“I think that’s going to be the difference in this: who wants to take that leap and cross that line and change up their style to get to the other guy? That’s what’s going to make it such a high-level chess match. He’s got a fantastic jab – I know this first hand from training. Great calf kicks – I’ve got great calf kicks, as well. I’ve got a really solid jab, myself. He’s a little bit taller, a little bit longer with the reach, and the height gives him a little more of the reach advantage, and he can grapple. He’s got great timing on his entries, as do I, so this is going to be a very intriguing puzzle for me to try to figure out.”
Sterling was calling for a title shot against UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, but drew lower-ranked Zalal instead. By taking this fight, Sterling hopes that holds weight with the UFC.
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“It’s not the fight I wanted, but I’m hoping this means something in the eyes of UFC brass,” Sterling said. “And hopefully I could go out there and make it look good or at least entertaining, then I could get the win and push my case forward to getting a title shot, and hopefully get to challenge the greatest featherweight of all time, Volkanovski.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Aljamain Sterling: Youssef Zalal ‘intriguing puzzle’ to figure out
