​PARIS – Youssef Zalal is seeking a change after leaving his longtime gym.Zalal (18-6-1 MMA, 8-4-1 UFC) saw his eight-fight winning streak snapped by Aljamain Sterling in the UFC Fight Night 274 headliner in April. He went 5-0 in his second stint with the UFC, before running into the former bantamweight champion.While the loss isn’t the direct culprit of Zalal leaving Factory X, the 30-year-old felt changing teams was necessary.”I had a few changes happen, so it’s a lot crazier on my side,” Zalal told MMA Junkie. “I’m still trying to figure it out 100 percent. I’m definitely no longer fighting out of Factory X. Marc Montoya has been nothing but a father figure and obviously a mentor for all my life, to be honest. He’s been with me my whole professional career. When I fight, he’ll probably be there, but not in the corner. “I grew in the program, and that kind of changed, and where I’m at in my level, I still need growth – the micro-growths. That’s where we’re at: (I) made the decision to do that.”Zalal has since spent some time training with coach Trevor Wittman and UFC lightweight Fares Ziam, an environment he’s currently “looking at.” He opened up on his biggest takeaway from the Sterling loss.”The biggest thing, I think without the right preparation, without everything, I still get to do what I’ve got to do, and it gives me a lot of confidence,” Zalal said. “I don’t make excuses. I don’t make nothing. They got that fight at the right time. And for me, it was like two weeks of Ramadan, hard training in the night, and then jam everything in three weeks to go fight – and it kind of showed in the fight. The fourth round, and fourth-fifth round, I was pretty tired, and feeling it a little bit – muscle fatigue and all that stuff. But I get to compete against the top four now in the world?”But for me, it just shows I’m not that far, and that’s what I’m trying to figure out right now with the team to get to that next part. I feel like that’s what I need, is just that next part. … I think it’s lack of training partners, and I think the coaches are doing their own thing, also. But I think it’s such a evolving game. I’m in a part of my career where I need a lot of attention into some aspects of the fighting, like striking or this or that, not just the regular classes. That’s one of the reasons of the decision – and also personal reasons. But that’s why I think the thing happened.”This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Youssef Zalal announces split from Factory X, interested in Trevor Wittman