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Yousri Belgaroui | Middleweight’s New Boogeyman
Towering Dutch Striker Yousri Belgaroui Talks Motivation And Validation Ahead Of Noche UFC Clash With Djorden Santos
A post near the top of Yousri Belgaroui’s Instagram grid is a highlight reel from his win over Mansur Abdul-Malik in March with the audio from an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience where the longtime UFC broadcast is speaking about the Dutch striker being a dangerous threat in the middleweight division.
“That’s Joe Rogan, man — when Joe Rogan says something, it’s the truth. I can’t refute that,” Belgaroui said ahead of his bout with Djorden Santos at Noche UFC in Glendale, Arizona. “Joe Rogan is the No. 1 podcaster in the world, but besides that, he’s a huge fight fan and he’s been practicing and following martial arts for years and years. To hear him say that about me, after hearing him talk about other fighters for years, it’s really cool, and it also motivates me to keep going, doing what I do, and performing in the Octagon.”
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In just a pair of appearances, the 34-year-old has quickly established himself as a dark horse in the 185-pound weight class, standing as a nightmare matchup for anyone tasked with standing opposite him.
A world-class striker who challenged for gold under the Glory Kickboxing banner and then joined forces with his former rival Alex Pereira, Glover Teixeira and the team they’ve built in Connecticut, Belgaroui is uncommonly tall for the division and adept at using every inch of his range to his advantage. Against Azamat Bekoev last October in Vancouver, he chipped away at the highly regarded Russian prospect through the first two rounds before putting him away less than a minute into the third, and then earlier this year, he did the same to Abdul-Malik, handing him the first loss of his career in Seattle.
Two starts, two wins, two finishes is a pretty good way to start your tenure inside the Octagon. It’s extra satisfying for him after he was passed over for a contract on his Season 8 appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series despite a third-round finish. Belgaroui was the lone winner from his episode that did not matriculate to the roster. Instead, he went back to the gym, continued to work on his craft, and stayed ready.
“Every time you lose, or you have something that you didn’t predict — you want something to go better or be easier, and when it doesn’t, it definitely motivates; at least it should, and for me it did,” Belgaroui said. “For me, when something like that happens, it just amps it up. If I thought I trained at 100 percent, something like that, whatever happens in a negative way, always gives me that extra push to give another 20 percent in the gym, and that’s where it all goes is into the training… People say I’m in my prime right now, I found myself and those kinds of things, and that is true, but only for the one thing: I’m still the same person. I train harder and that’s how I keep finding myself more and more.”
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While not getting selected following his successful return to the Contender Series stung, it has also made what has transpired since even sweeter, as he’s not only shown his critics that he’s capable of competing and thriving at this level, having stopped a pair of top prospects in succession, but he’s proven to himself that he’s built for life on the biggest stage in the sport as well.
“To see myself actually perform against these top dogs is also validating for me,” he said. “It definitely helps with my confidence to know I can perform under the big lights, which is a big thing for a fighter, especially if you want to break into the rankings where you’re gonna have more and more attention, pressure, and those types of things. It is validating and it is a good push to keep pushing forward in the UFC.”
That next step forward comes on Saturday at Desert Diamond Arena, where he faces off with Santos, who stepped in when former interim title challenger Kelvin Gastelum was forced to the sidelines for undisclosed reasons.
Changes are inevitable and injuries are a part of the sport, but Belgaroui is also in a bit of a challenging situation as his emphatic wins over Bekoev and Abdul-Malik have positioned him as something of a boogeyman in the middleweight ranks.
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“It feels good and bad,” Belgaroui said. “It’s bad because my last fight was in March, and I’ve been ready. I was booked for June, July, August. Fights fell through for other guys, and they asked me to step up. I stepped up, and they declined, so that’s the bad part of it… The good part of it is confidence. It shows that people are — it’s a big risk to fight anybody in the UFC. Even right now, I’ve got to fight Djorden Santos, who’s not a huge name, who’s not like Kelvin Gastelum, and he’s not ranked, so it is a bigger risk for me than it is for him.
“People have that towards me, and it’s cool to have that,” he continued. “Once I go more into the rankings, people are gonna have less of that because that’s where the difference is made; the ranked are the top guys in the world… But some ranked guys did decline because I wasn’t ranked, though. At least I’ve accepted everything and that tells (the matchmakers) something too.”
Yousri Belgaroui Closes It Out with a Round 3 TKO | UFC Seattle
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Yousri Belgaroui Closes It Out with a Round 3 TKO | UFC Seattle
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While he’s correct in his assessment of the stakes heading into his fight with Santos on Saturday, that doesn’t mean that Belgaroui isn’t fully dialled in to deal with the Contender Series alum. He’s acutely aware that the Brazilian isn’t someone that is going to go away easily, which means he’ll be coming with both barrels loaded right from the outset.
As such, the rangy striker knows he’s going to need to do everything in his power to send Santos to the Shadow Realm in order to continue his run of success.
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“The first thing that stands out is his heart, his character,” began Belgaroui. “If I’m honest, I’m better in every facet of fighting, of what makes a martial artist, but that doesn’t mean anything in there. That’s the beauty of the sport. So his character, him being a dog makes him someone to really look out for every single second of that match… He’s a very dangerous guy, he’s got heart and he keeps on going. There is no way to get him out of the fight other than actually getting him out of the fight. I gotta hurt him, really put his lights out. This can be through the body or through the head, can start it at the legs, but I’ve got to hurt him so bad that I find the off switch after.”
Should that come to pass, Belgaroui already knows when and where he’d like to fight next while having a broad idea about the missing piece of that equation.
“If my coach was here, he wouldn’t even let me answer because this is what’s next; this Saturday and nothing else matters,” he said with a laugh. “I like to play with that too because I know November is coming to New York. I feel like a true East Coast guy. I feel at home in Connecticut, and New York is very close to home. Everybody can come out to watch the fight.
“That would be amazing, also, because Alex (Pereira) would like to have his comeback there,” he added. “So, if I may dream about that, it would be Madison Square Garden against a ranked opponent.”
Put Santos to sleep and then head to “The City That Never Sleeps” — sounds like a plan.
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