The life of a fighter can be a frustrating racket. Aside from the stress involved in not always being on the winning side, there is often the excruciating wait to be assigned a side at all. Such is the current situation of #14-ranked welterweight Elizeu Zaleski, who is currently riding a seven-fight win streak and wants to strike while the iron is hot to earn win number 8. (Transcript via MMA Fighting):
“I’m doing my part, which is getting ready and putting on a good streak in the promotion,” Zaleski told reporters during a media scrum earlier this month. “I hope I’m always doing my best. It’s on the company now to book those fights. I’m ready, and I want to fight someone ranked, for sure. I hope (to fight) someone closer to the top 5.”
One name that fits that description is current #1-contender Colby Covington, whom Elizeu Zaleski has a special interest in punching in the mouth. He would also be interested in a fight against Britain’s Leon Edwards in a battle of the sevens:
“I think an interesting fight would be against Leon Edwards, who’s also coming off seven straight wins and is anxious to fight,” Zaleski said. “Why don’t we meet there to see who gets the eighth straight victory?
“There’s also Colby (Covington), who only talks, talks and talks, but never fights,” he continued. “I think that’s also an interesting fight. I’d go out there to fight him, since he’s scared to come fight in Brazil. He says a bunch of stuff and now is scared to come fight here. We can make that fight. That’s also an interesting one.”
In spite of having these names, and others, in mind, Elizeu Zaleski remains fightless. Zaleski is convinced that this is due to other ranked welterweights being afraid to lose their position in the rankings by taking a fight against him, i.e, “The Usman Effect.” This has begged the question for him to raise: why consider yourself a fighter if you are unwilling to fight?
“That might be happening, yes,” Zaleski said. “They get to a point that they get comfortable, when they are in the ranking, and they don’t want to fight, they just want to guarantee (their spots). We have to fight, things have to move in this division, which is a stacked division.
”If you’re not going to fight, get out. Go do something else, I don’t know. A fighter has to fight.”
Whom would you like to see Elizeu Zaleski fight next?
