Georges St-Pierre is set to corner his teammate when the Octagon returns to Montreal for UFC 315.
Few men are better equipped to offer advice about fighting at the Bell Center than the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion.
Some of the best nights in the incredible career of ‘Rush’ came inside the iconic venue including UFC 83 where St-Pierre avenged his shocking loss to Matt Serra.
Despite St-Pierre leaving the door open for a comeback, he won’t be competing on May 10 but he will be trying to help Aiemann Zahabi secure the biggest win of his career against fellow legend Jose Aldo.
In doing so, St-Pierre has given Zahabi some interesting advice, of which the Canadian-born contender has since revealed.
- READ MORE: Aiemann Zahabi was paid to mimic Jose Aldo 14 years before being booked to fight him at UFC 315
Aiemann Zahabi says Georges St-Pierre told him not to put Jose Aldo on a pedestal at UFC 315
In a recent exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, Aiemann Zahabi spoke about the advice that Georges St-Pierre had for him ahead of UFC 315.
Zahabi, who has won five in a row to earn the #14-ranking at 135-pounds, has previously earned high praise from his Tristar teammate after putting together the best run of his career at 37-years-old.
He revealed in the interview that one of the first things he did after being offered the fight was to call St-Pierre who immediately passed on some words of wisdom.
‘GSP’ was able to use his own experiences of coming up against a high-profile opponent and the mistakes that he made so that Zahabi can avoid falling down the same pitfalls.
Zahabi said: “I wanted to be the first one to tell him about Aldo so I called him up right away as soon as we said yes and he told me that he’s only human. The biggest mistake I can do is to put him on a pedestal and that he bleeds, he gets tired, he gets hurt, he has two arms and two legs and one head. He’s not a god, he’s nothing supreme.
“He’s just another guy who fights good, who trains hard, who has a lot of fight IQ, he’s like you but that doesn’t mean he’s not beatable.
“I think the first time GSP fought Matt Hughes, he put Matt Hughes on a pedestal and he was basically explaining to me to not do that with this opportunity. Just to go in there and fight him like I would fight.”
- READ MORE: Michael Bisping tells former UFC champion to seriously consider retirement if he loses comeback bout
Aiemann Zahabi says his UFC 315 fight with Jose Aldo is ‘all business’
Of course, it would be impossible for a competitor like Aiemann Zahabi to have not a tremendous amount of respect for Jose Aldo after everything the Brazilian legend has accomplished.
It’s so impossible to avoid showering the former UFC featherweight champion with praise that even the Canadian fighter’s own supporters have fallen victim to it.
Zahabi laughed as he told Bloody Elbow that when he announced the news, even his own inner circle made sure to have Aldo’s back.
“You know what’s funny, he has such a fan base than even like friends of mine or like acquaintances, they always come up to me, they’re always like, ‘listen we want you to win but don’t hurt him too bad’. Like what are you crazy! That guy doesn’t care about me man!
“The guy is coming to rip my head off and I’m coming to rip his face off. There’s no taking it easy, it’s all business.”