At a glance
- Owner and head coach of Tristar Gym in Montreal since 2008.
- Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under John Danaher, awarded in 2011.
- Georges St-Pierre's head coach from UFC 69 on, and has also worked with Robert Whittaker and Vitor Belfort.
Overview
Firas Zahabi was born in 1980 in Quebec. He got into martial arts at 18 after watching UFC 2, joined Montreal's Tristar Gym in 2000 and became a Canadian amateur Muay Thai champion. He earned his Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt from John Danaher in 2011.
He took over running Tristar Gym in 2007 and bought it in 2008. He holds a philosophy degree from Concordia University and is the older brother of UFC bantamweight Aiemann Zahabi. Under his leadership, Tristar has become a training base for fighters from around the world who come to Montreal for camps.
What you'll find
His Instagram shows daily life at Tristar Gym, training clips and his thinking on fighter preparation. He advocates technical, controlled training without all-out sparring, with a heavy emphasis on recovery. His view is that a fighter who breaks himself down in the gym shows up weaker on fight night, so the goal is to accumulate quality work over many weeks.
He was the MMA coach for Team GSP on The Ultimate Fighter opposite Josh Koscheck, and he called Titan FC events on CBS Sports in 2014 alongside Stephan Bonnar. Both roles put him in front of a mainstream TV audience.
Why follow
After Georges St-Pierre lost to Matt Serra at UFC 69, Zahabi became his head coach for the rest of his career. The two had met as amateur fighters. He has also worked with Robert Whittaker, Vitor Belfort, Miguel Torres and Kenny Florian, who prepared for his featherweight title run under Zahabi's guidance.
His content focuses on method: how to structure a camp, how to manage intensity and how to develop a fighter over years. You can apply that thinking to your own training at any level.
MMA Official's take
Zahabi is a fit for athletes and coaches who want to understand how fighters are built, more than for fans chasing results. His content is in English and easy to follow even if you are new to coaching vocabulary. If you coach, his ideas on managing intensity will be as useful as his technical tips.
Start with his Instagram to see Tristar Gym day to day, then look for his talks on controlled training and recovery.