“Me in the first go-round in the UFC,” he laughs. “You can ask everybody about it. Just bring it up. I guarantee you they’re going to stop and then they’re going to try to be nice. But I guarantee you, that was my thing. But now, if I look good in the gym, I want to look good in the fight. That’s what pushes me and motivates me, to be honest, because I was that guy where they would say that we just need you to fight the way you train in the gym.”
That criticism didn’t sit well with him until he realized it was the truth. And once that truth sunk in, he became a different fighter.
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“I think the biggest thing was having a purpose,” Zalal said. “I feel like I was a kid just talking. Kids say, ‘I want to do this, I want to have this car, I want to have this.’ And I’m a very goal-oriented guy. Whatever it takes for me to get that goal, I want to get it. But I started really believing in the fame and not really doing the things that got me there in the first place. So I think that the experience is definitely the biggest thing. And obviously realizing it and getting comfortable with myself, that was the biggest thing.”