After suffering a knee injury earlier this week, Georges St-Pierre was unable to compete at UFC 137 and was forced to withdraw from his upcoming bout. The French-Canadian was scheduled to make his seventh title defense against Carlos Condit.
After learning about the champion’s departure, St-Pierre’s trainer Firas Zahabi spoke to Sherdog.com about the extent of the injury.
“He was sparring today and he hurt his knee,” Zahabi said. “I had a feeling it was bad, but then, once he cooled down, he started limping. There’s no way he would be able to fight.”
Zahabi has been an integral part of St-Pierre’s training regimen, as he has coached and trained the 30-year-old at the Tristar Gym in Montreal. Alongside coaches Greg Jackson, Mike Winklejohn and Phil Nurse, Zahabi has witnessed the champion comfortably reign over the welterweight division for the last four years.
Zahabi recalled the incident and said St-Pierre had sprained his knee during a shoot boxing session, which consists of striking and take downs. Zahabi said the cause of the injury is complicated due to how complex the sparring session was.
St-Pierre underwent an MRI shortly after and the diagnosis was only a sprained knee, so it won’t require any additional surgery. Zahabi said the entire camp was disappointed but he believes the hard work that was put into the training camp will only make St-Pierre an even better fighter in the future.
“We made a lot of sacrifices. We had a lot of people come in to help us train. We put a lot of man hours into getting ready for this fight,” he said. “But it’s not going to waste, it’s just being put on hold.”
St-Pierre is expected to remain out of action for the remainder of the year, but he is scheduled to return by early 2012.
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