Don’t belittle “The Moroccan Devil.”
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight Youssef Zalal scored the biggest win of his career at UFC Vegas 102 last night (Sat., Feb. 15, 2025) as he defeated No. 10 ranked Calvin Kattar via unanimous decision from inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Zalal has one of the most energetic, cheerful personalities in the UFC and loves to play around in interviews, but during the UFC Vegas 102 post-fight conference (watch here), he got really serious when he recalled Kattar’s family disparaging him during the weigh-ins on Fri.
“Hey, I don’t appreciate- I don’t know if it was his girl, his family, or whoever the hell it was. Don’t be running your f—king mouth when you’re not fighting. You know what I mean?” Zalal told reporters. “They’d be like, ‘it’s light work,’ this and that. Light work, my ass, huh? You can find out. My little Pikachu ass, you can’t even catch…Just remember that.”
“This was at the weigh-ins, bro; I’m sitting there where we’re having a great time,” Zalal added. “I’m being respectful and all that stuff, and I got my jiu-jitsu coach, my professor, saying, ‘Let’s go, Yousee.’ That’s my nickname they give me. It’s Yousee. And then all I hear is ‘light work, light work, light work. And I said, ‘Okay, bet. All right.’ And then let’s see how light work this shit is. They might as well call me f—king heavyweight now.”
“So I hope they watch this, and they can go cry about it,” Zalal concluded. “I’m not the type of person trying to brag about this but don’t respect this sport. This sport is very humbling and dangerous. I’m one of the most humble people in this f—king division, so don’t come at me that way and test my African ass come out. So don’t do that.”
Kattar is known to have a lot of supporters that make the travel from Boston to “Sin City” when he fights, so it seems they tried to taunt the wrong guy. Nevertheless, Zalal is riding a seven-fight win streak and will be ranked inside the Top 10 next week.
For complete UFC Vegas 102 results and play-by-play click here.