{"id":37231,"date":"2026-03-16T15:17:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Youssef-Zalal-upset-that-UFC-champ-never-mentions-his-name-200479"},"modified":"2026-03-16T15:17:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:17:26","slug":"youssef-zalal-upset-that-ufc-champ-never-mentions-his-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/youssef-zalal-upset-that-ufc-champ-never-mentions-his-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Youssef Zalal upset that UFC champ never mentions his name"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/youssef-zalal-upset-that-ufc-champ-never-mentions-his-name.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Youssef-Zalal-229985\">Youssef<br \/>\nZalal<\/a> is upset with <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Alexander-Volkanovski-101527\">Alexander<br \/>\nVolkanovski<\/a> for never mentioning his name.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Volkanovski is one of the most game <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-2\"><br \/>\nUFC<\/a> champions. \u201cThe Great\u201d goes out of his way to call out<br \/>\ncontenders who could potentially pose a threat to him. The<br \/>\nfeatherweight champion is one of the few fighters to call out<br \/>\ncontenders like <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Movsar-Evloev-183539\">Movsar<br \/>\nEvloev<\/a> and <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Lerone-Murphy-209721\">Lerone<br \/>\nMurphy<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> However, surging contender Zalal has seemingly escaped<br \/>\nVolkanovski\u2019s notice so far. Zalal is scheduled to headline<br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/events\/UFC-Fight-Night-274-Brady-vs-Buckley-111715\"><br \/>\nUFC Fight Night 274<\/a> against <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Aljamain-Sterling-66313\">Aljamain<br \/>\nSterling<\/a> on April 25 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Zalal notes<br \/>\nthat Volkanovski has mentioned Sterling multiple times. \u201cThe<br \/>\nMoroccan Devil\u201d wants to make a statement with a win over Sterling<br \/>\nso that Volkanovski is bound to mention his name.<\/p>\n<h2>The Chance to Make a Statement<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe one thing that still pisses me off and I can\u2019t wait to prove<br \/>\nit, is Volk doesn\u2019t mention my name ever, in any interviews,<br \/>\nanything,\u201d Zalal told <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/T91EuOtytXM?si=lQtB95o04QSQhLM_&amp;t=455\">MMAjunkie.com<\/a>. \u201cHe mentioned Aljamain plenty of<br \/>\ntimes, so I\u2019m excited to go for a statement and really show \u2018The<br \/>\nGreat\u2019 how great I am.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Zalal (18-5) made his UFC debut in 2020 and started his journey<br \/>\nwith three straight wins. However, Zalal was released in 2022 after<br \/>\na four-fight winless streak. Zalal racked up three first-round<br \/>\nfinishes on the regional circuit to earn another shot at the UFC.<br \/>\nZalal started his second UFC stint in 2024, racking up five<br \/>\nstraight wins with four finishes. The 29-year-old is coming off a<br \/>\nsubmission win over <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Josh-Emmett-85885\">Josh Emmett<\/a><br \/>\nat UFC 320 last October.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Sterling (25-5) moved up to featherweight after losing<br \/>\nhis bantamweight title to Sean O\u2019Malley in 2023. \u201cFunkmaster\u2019 has<br \/>\nsince sandwiched a loss against <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Movsar-Evloev-183539\">Movsar<br \/>\nEvloev<\/a> between wins over <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Calvin-Kattar-23782\">Calvin<br \/>\nKattar<\/a> and <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Brian-Ortega-65310\">Brian<br \/>\nOrtega<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T91EuOtytXM?si=IvRsC3Q5XtTAgq7g\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen>[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/center>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Youssef Zalal is upset with Alexander Volkanovski for never mentioning his name.&nbsp; Volkanovski is one of the most game UFC champions. \u201cThe Great\u201d goes out of his way to call out contenders who could potentially pose a threat to him. The featherweight champion is one of the few fighters to call out contenders like Movsar [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}