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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