Judy Eddy/WENN.com
Georges St-Pierre knows what it takes to excel at the highest level of mixed martial arts. The former welterweight and middleweight champion was one of the most dominant titleholders in UFC history and was able to fine-tune his skill set under the direction of Firas Zahabi, the head trainer at Tristar Gym in Montreal.
But what GSP may not have known is that Zahabi had some tricks up his sleeves to give St-Pierre some extra motivation while training for big fights.
During an appearance on the “JRE MMA Show” podcast with Joe Rogan, Zahabi revealed that he would sometimes offer fighters a $5,000 reward if they were able to knock St-Pierre out during training. The goal of the bounty on the champ’s head was to ensure he was always taking on someone at their best.
But don’t worry: Zahabi never had to pay up the $5,000 reward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDsoWp743gM
Zahabi said, as transcribed by MMAjunkie.com:
“We reach those high intensity levels periodically through the year, and we have to do it a certain way so that it’s fun. Georges was on your show, and he was saying I was trying to kill him in the practice room. He’s right, but I do it so rarely. I do it so periodically. I make it a joke. I brought the guys in a room, and I was watching them spar with Georges, and they don’t want to touch his face. This is when he was like a mega-star, when he was the champ. Nobody wants to try to double leg him; nobody wants to try to hurt him. They’re like, ‘I’m not going to come here in his house and try to show him.’ There’s a respect thing. They’re starstruck, these young kids.
“I would bring in these young kids, and I would be like, ‘Listen, guys.’ I would give them a speech: ‘The first guy to double leg him, the first guy to put him out, I’ll give a $5,000 reward. If you knock Georges out, I’ll give you 5,000 bucks. If you put Georges on his back, if you take him down, put him on his back, I’ll stop the whole practice and praise you for 20 minutes in front of everybody in the gym.’ And students don’t get praised by me very often. Georges would be like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are coming after me!’ So he would get riled up. I would do this periodically. We’re talking about world title fights, stuff’s on the line. I need these guys to show me where Georges is missing something. Because when you’re having this ‘perfect practice,’ and you win all the time, what do you work on? Nothing went wrong, there’s nothing to fix. So there were times I would really red-light him.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhsTPd9hdma/?taken-by=georgesstpierre
https://www.instagram.com/p/5pMECTMuhn/?taken-by=firas_zahabi
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bbfz7KAg0Xj/?taken-by=georgesstpierre
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaH77RUl22F/?taken-by=georgesstpierre
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZhz178gzSA/?taken-by=georgesstpierre
Zahabi did come close to having to pay the reward one time, however.
“He’s been dropped once in practice pretty badly,” he acknowledged. “But the money wasn’t on the line that time. There was no prize for that. One time he got dropped in practice, and I wanted to pull the plug. It was for a world title fight. He was fighting Dan Hardy.”
St-Pierre last fought at UFC 217 in November 2017. “Rush” scored an impressive rear-naked submission victory over Michael Bisping to win the UFC middleweight title. It was St-Pierre’s first bout in nearly four years. After winning the 185-pound belt, St-Pierre would vacate the title due to health issues.
Currently, there is no official word on whether St-Pierre will ever return to the Octagon again.
