Fires Zahabi discusses Dana White's criticism of Georges St-Pierre's 'test' camp

Fires Zahabi agrees with UFC President Dana White: Most fighters don’t do trial training camps to learn if the spark is still there. But Zahabi said Georges St-Pierre isn’t most fighters.

This past month, White criticized St-Pierre’s plan to do a six-week “test” camp and told latimes.com, “You don’t do a six-week camp to learn if you have the hunger. You either know it or not.”

Those rules may apply to many fighters, but St-Pierre’s longtime trainer said the former UFC welterweight champion, who vacated his belt and walked away from the sport in 2013 after nine consecutive title defenses, is a special case. Zahabi, head of Tristar Gym in Montreal, said the normal rules don’t apply to someone like 34-year-old St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC).

“Dana White is right in saying people don’t do that,” Zahabi told MMAjunkie. “Yeah, people don’t do that, but GSP does.

“If you do like everybody else, you’ll be like everybody else. Georges doesn’t do things the way everyone else does. ‘Six-week camps? Oh, that’s so painful. That’s so horrendous.’ If you want to be the best of all-time, that’s the price you have to pay, and Georges is willing to pay it. That’s why he’s so different than everyone else. So Dana White is right, and so is Georges.”

Check out the full conversation, which includes comments from St-Pierre’s teammates, above.

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