Aiemann Zahabi has some questions for Sean Shelby after UFC 217

Aiemann Zahabi has waited eight months for his second UFC fight. After UFC 217, he doesn’t expect to wait that long again.

Aiemann Zahabi, the younger brother of famed Tristar head coach Firas Zahabi, scored a decision victory over Reginaldo Vieira in February in his promotional debut.

Then he sat. And waited. And wondered why his phone wasn’t ringing. He plans to have a chat with UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby to give him a gentle nudge and assure the fight executive that he wants to remain busy.

“I understand Sean Shelby,” Zahabi recently told MMAjunkie. “He’s got a lot of work. I would just like to know how they’re deciding who to pick and put on what card and why I got such a layoff. I don’t understand eight months.”

Zahabi (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is now slated for a fight with fellow bantamweight Ricardo Ramos (10-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 217 curtain-jerker. UFC 217 takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York, and the main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

After such a long wait, it’s a pretty major card to land on for Zahabi, whose bout kicks off the UFC Fight Pass online stream.

“I didn’t ask to be on the New York City card, but he put me on that card,” Zahabi said of Shelby. “I had a long wait, but I appreciate I’m on such a big card because it will help promote. He made up for it in a big way. He’s a great guy. He took care of me.”

Still, he has questions about why he should be doing.

“That’s what I want to ask Sean: Should I be calling people out?” he said. “It’s not my style. Not that I don’t want to offend anybody, because I’m not afraid of anybody in my weight class or anything like that, but there’s no point in me being disrespectful. That’s just not who I am. I don’t want people thinking, ‘Oh, he just thinks he’s a hotshot.’ It has nothing to do with that.

“I would like to fight three times a year, and I want to ask Sean Shelby what’s the best way to get the fights I want.”

Check out the full interview above.

For more on UFC 217, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.