Fares Ziam is now looking to test himself against the UFC lightweight division’s veterans.
Ziam (18-4 MMA, 8-2 UFC) extended his winning streak to six when he finished fellow rising contender Nazim Sadykhov by TKO this past Saturday at UFC 323. The 28-year-old was asked his thoughts on Manuel Torres, who also scored a big finish on the same night over Grant Dawson.
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But Ziam is done facing up-and-comers. Now that he has a ranking, he’s targeting bigger names.
“For me, most important is to keep winning, to be in the top 10 soon as possible,” Ziam told MMA Junkie Junkie Radio. “But sometimes the UFC puts two guys on the same card (against each other), but yeah, I want to take names before they leave. … My manager does a great job. We didn’t fight top-15 guys before. Six-fight win streak and, yeah, now I can fight maybe like (Renato) Moicano, (Michael) Chandler, something like that.”
While he’s open to a quick turnaround, Ziam usually prefers not to. He explains that it’s the time off that has allowed him to show new wrinkles to his game from fight to fight.
“Maybe February or after Ramadan will be great, too,” Ziam said. “I love to train, I love to evolve, I love to do something I never do because in the fight camp you evolve, but you cannot evolve a lot in specific things like wrestling or grappling (without enough time). For me, the best is to have two-three months no fight, just train, and try to evolve the best.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Fares Ziam targets two lightweight veterans after UFC 323 finish
