Firas Zahabi: GSP Asked Me Not To Corner Jones Title Fight

1 Like

Tristar Gym head coach Firas Zahabi has revealed that he backed out of cornering Jon Jones’ first light heavyweight title fight at the request of Georges St-Pierre.

Jones is set to make his return to the cage at UFC 285 in a fight for the UFC’s vacant heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane. The 35-year-old last fought when he won a controversial split decision against Dominick Reyes at UFC 247, which was the thirteenth time he’d successfully defended the light heavyweight belt.

“Bones” established himself as arguably the greatest fighter in the history of the sport during his run as light heavyweight champion, and he first won the title be defeating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 128. According to a story shared on his YouTube channel, Zahabi was supposed to be in Jones’ corner for the fight that saw him become the youngest champion in the history of the UFC.

“I love Jon, me and Jon used to be really close friends,” Zahabi said. “Back, before he became world champion, before he fought ‘Shogun,’ I trained him many, many, many times. He used to live in Montreal. We spent a lot of time training together. However, when he fought ‘Shogun’ – I was supposed to be in his corner – Georges St-Pierre also had a title fight coming up, and Georges asked me ‘Don’t go. Because I need you here, I don’t have anybody to replace you.’ So I stayed. And that kind of put a rift between us, a little bit. I have to prioritize Georges over Jon.”

Also Read: Ciryl Gane Explains Why Jon Jones Will Fail Where Francis Ngannou Succeeded

Firas Zahabi Knew Jon Jones Would Win Title

St-Pierre is one of the few fighters in the conversation alongside Jones as MMA’s possible GOAT, but Zahabi went on to say he was confident that “Bones” would become champion with or without his corner work.

Jones became the youngest champion in UFC history when he stopped Rua at UFC 128. (Zuffa LLC)

“I knew, I was so confident he was gonna win. I was so confident Jon Jones was gonna crush ‘Shogun.’ So confident. I even talked to him, I said ‘You don’t need – there’s nobody in the world that’s going to change the result of this fight. I don’t care who’s in who’s corner.’ Lo and behold, he wins. Guys, don’t forget he’s the youngest man to ever become world champion in the UFC. Don’t forget, I told you about how talented he is.”

The greatness of “Rush” was established during his lengthy reign as the UFC’s welterweight champion, but the 41-year-old added a significant accolade to his record when he also claimed the promotion’s middleweight title by submitting Michael Bisping at UFC 217.

Jones might be able to take some inspiration from St-Pierre ahead of his own bid to claim a second title at UFC 285, as the Canadian was also returning from a significant layoff when he took on Bisping. There are plenty of question marks around how “Bones” will look in his debut at heavyweight, and he won’t have much time to adjust to the weight class when he steps into the cage against a former interim champion in Gane

1 Like

Things seem cool between the two of them…

3 Likes

LOL, HKP with another honeydick thread title :slight_smile:

Could have gone with “… GSP Asked Me Not To Corner Jones Against Shogun”. Title makes it sound like currently inactive GSP interfered with the Jones’ come back, but that’s not what happened at all.

The real question I have now is actually about Jones’ history. What was the story with him joining Jackson’s camp? It sounds like Jones was shopping around for a better camp than the one that brought him to the dance? I wonder if that was a suggestion that Dana made to Jones, or what?

6 Likes

Youre Welcome

4 Likes

Sounds like the anti Jackson-Wink

That is fucking hilarious. Jones face lmao like he was trying to tell the reporter not to bring him into it

1 Like

Imagine Jones with GSP’s work ethic and IQ.

So funny that he can go from the Real Jon Jones to the Fake one for the cameras in less than a millisecond lol

1 Like

UncomfortableNearBantamrooster-max-1mb

1 Like

It made sense. He was working out in a barn behind his trainers house. They had a few guys but were no where near world class gym. If I recall even the trainers there understood. When you have that kind of genetics (2 bros all pro ballers), his wrestling and ability to learn coupled with his ability to open up you want the best training partners in the world and the best coaches.

Is that accurate? I really don’t remember my shit… but I could have sworn he came from the same camp as Tamdan McCrory. LOL but maybe that’s where he got the name Barncat.

I’d also like to know what happened with Jones being trained by Henry Cejudo. But the MMA media is so fucking neutered/retarded, there’s basically zero chance of anyone asking any interesting questions.

It sounds like he’s training at Cejudo’s gym AND a Jackson affiliate.

Stop honeydickin’ us bro!

Idk that interaction made it seem like he was only being fake to GSP. He saw the camera once they said his name. Then GSP is like “Hiz Heer?”. And Jones was like nah bro chill don’t let him know lol.

That was better than an SNL skit

He got me again. Never change HKP.