MONTREAL — Georges St-Pierre’s trainer Firas Zahabi believes one of the keys to the champion retaining his belt on Saturday at UFC 158 will be to not let the chirpy challenger suck him into a street fight.
But he isn’t entirely confident that won’t happen.
When asked by a fellow reporter if he had no worries about St-Pierre letting emotions get the better of him against Diaz, the Tristar gym head trainer was candid in his response.
“I didn’t say I have no worries, I never said that. Did I say that?” Zahabi said coyly. “I said we’ll find out on Saturday if he does or doesn’t. But that’s the one aspect I want to try to avoid.”
Zahabi, who has been St-Pierre’s trainer for years, said that it’s his job as trainer to make sure St-Pierre approaches the fight as professionally as possible. He believes that’s what will make him most effective, which is of utmost importance against a fighter like Diaz who actually thrives on fighting with emotion.
“Diaz is a good street fighter,” Zahabi said. “He’s also a good tactician, but he’s also a good street fighter. It’s not a place for Georges to go into a street fight. I think Georges is superior in technique, skill and performance, so that’s what he needs to use.”
Zahabi said Diaz’s style is what allows him to succeed by fighting that way, whereas St-Pierre is the opposite.
“(Diaz) gets to the point where it’s blow for blow and he can outdo you in every sense,” Zahabi said. “He fuels the emotion to suck you into that realm and you start going strike for strike. That’s his game, he’s going to outpunch you, so if you’re going to try to do that, he can get you psychologically sucked into that game by slapping you or calling you names and you forget about sticking and moving, you just want to hit the guy and get him back.”
Zahabi points to Diaz’s last opponent, Carlos Condit, who was able avoid getting sucked into Diaz’s fight, much to the Stockton slugger’s chagrin (even frustrating Diaz, who exclaimed, “So we’re throwing spinning s—, now?”).
“(Condit) stayed composed, controlling the distance, staying back and executing his strikes,” Zahabi said. “He didn’t try going blow for blow with Nick Diaz. He would have lost.”
A major difference in this fight is Diaz did not get under Condit’s skin like he has St-Pierre’s. So that will be a challenge for the typically restrained Canadian.
But it’s nothing like the psychological hurdle St-Pierre had to overcome in his last fight. Coming off a long layoff and ACL tear, it was a long road back to where he was.
“With the Condit fight it was tough, because Georges really started at zero,” Zahabi said. “I mean I was making him spar three rounds of three minutes with amateur fighters, and he wasn’t doing well. He hadn’t done anything for a year. He was just as human as everyone else. Of course it picked up every week and he got better.
“Imagine you’re the best at something in the world and you can’t get the better of a guy who’s been doing this for 3-4 times a week for five years. That’s psychologically difficult to swallow. But I have to give it to him. I was very impressed with his comeback. He bit the bullet, he went through all the hard trainings, even though when times were really bad he couldn’t even hit his doubles (double-leg takedowns). He couldn’t even outjab a beginner boxer. It was ugly.”
The world saw just how well he was able to come back at UFC 154 in November, where he was basically able to land those doubles at will and outboxed a talented Condit. And he says this camp was like night and day from the last one.
Zahabi said it started out well as St-Pierre carried the momentum from the last fight and was dominant throughout. Considering his ability to physically come back from square one and how psychologically strong you would have to be to do it, you’d have to think if anyone can avoid Diaz’s attempts to get into his head in the fight, it’s St-Pierre.
As his trainer and close friend said, we’ll find out Saturday.
GSP’S FUTURE PLANS LAID OUT?
There was a report of GSP telling his former manager Stephane Patry that he wants to beat Diaz, then Johny Hendricks, then Anderson Silva, then retire. When St-Pierre was asked about it this week, he simply said, “You have to check the source on that.” Meanwhile, Zahabi said he doesn’t believe in making such long-term plans but did admit it would be the ideal scenario.
“If that happened, I would tell him, ‘Hey, retire, there’s nothing left to do,’” Zahabi said. “There’s no bigger fight. Just retire. Enjoy your life.”
Even though Zahabi admits there’s nothing St-Pierre loves more than fighting, he still thinks it would be the best move.
“Sometimes you love two women. You love them both, but you can’t have them both!”
