Firas Zahabi backs off comments that GSP will retire soon

Firas Zahabi, head of Canada's TriStar Gym and trainer to UFC Welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre raised a few eyebrows last week with comments that…

By: Nate Wilcox | 10 years ago
Firas Zahabi backs off comments that GSP will retire soon
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Firas Zahabi, head of Canada’s TriStar Gym and trainer to UFC Welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre raised a few eyebrows last week with comments that GSP may retire following his UFC 167 bout with Johny Hendricks. He went on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday and tried to reel it back in.

Here’s what he said:

Zahabi said that St-Pierre, who has been champion since April, 2008, has always maintained that when he hits the point that he loses his full motivation in his training camps, he will retire from the sport.

But Zahabi said that such is not the case now, as St-Pierre prepares to meet Hendricks on Nov. 16 in Las Vegas. While St-Pierre’s previous two training camps, for title defenses against Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz, weren’t so great because he was coming off a knee injury, the Hendricks camp has been his best in a long time.

“GSP has always that said if he loses the drive to really go through with a great training camp and push himself, then he will retire,” Zahabi said through Helwani. “GSP’s camp has been his best in years, last two not so great, because he was so rusty because of the knee injury.”

So that’s bad news for the rest of the Welterweight division.

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About the author
Nate Wilcox
Nate Wilcox

Nate Wilcox is the founding editor of BloodyElbow.com. As such he has hired every editor and writer to work for the site. Wilcox’s writing for BE is known for its emphasis on MMA history, the evolution of fighting techniques and strong opinions. Wilcox developed the SBN MMA consensus rankings which were featured in USA Today from 2009 to 2011. Before founding BE, Wilcox was a political operative working for such figures as Senators John Kerry and Mark Warner and an early political blogger. He is the co-author of Netroots Rising, a history of the political blogosphere from 2003 to 2007. Wilcox also hosts the Let It Roll podcast on music history for the Pantheon Podcast Network.

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