Trainer Firas Zahabi Would Offer GSP Sparring Partners $5K for Knockouts, Takedowns

When Georges St. Pierre was in his heyday, maintaining a high level of intensity during training sessions sometimes required some creativity.

St. Pierre established himself as one of the UFC’s biggest stars during a lengthy reign as welterweight champion, and as a result, training partners in the gym would often be reticent to go hard against him during sparring. Tristar Gym trainer Firas Zahabi explained the situation during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s JRE MMA Show podcast.

“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,” Zahabi said. “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.”

However, Zahabi had a method to make sure St. Pierre got the type of looks he needed in order to properly prepare for his UFC title defenses.

“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,” Zahabi said.

“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.”

For the most part, St. Pierre avoided taking serious damage in practice, according to Zahabi. But the trainer does recall one occasion when “Rush” was preparing for a title defense at UFC 111 where he took a serious shot.

“He’s been dropped once in practice pretty badly,” Zahabi said. “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.”