Filed under: UFCMiguel Torres became the bantamweight champion of the world while eschewing big training camps with well-known MMA gyms to stay home and train at his own gym in Indiana. But Torres has now lost three of his last five fights, and as he p…
Miguel Torres became the bantamweight champion of the world while eschewing big training camps with well-known MMA gyms to stay home and train at his own gym in Indiana. But Torres has now lost three of his last five fights, and as he prepares to take on Nick Pace at UFC 139 on Saturday, he says it’s past time for his buddies back home to understand that he needs to go elsewhere to get better.
Torres posted a heartfelt message on Facebook saying that he was bothered by the attitudes of some of the people at his gym back home in Indiana, and that he couldn’t allow himself to be held back by people who don’t understand the sacrifices a fighter has to make to be a world champion. And in an appearance on The MMA Hour, Torres said that training with Firas Zihabi at Tri Star Gym in Montreal — rather than at his own gym — has been essential to his efforts to regain the bantamweight title.
“These are guys who don’t understand what it takes to achieve at the highest level of the sport — they don’t understand what it takes,” Torres said of certain elements holding him back at home. “They’re stuck in the little world that they live in. They don’t see the big picture.”
In his Facebook message, Torres had harsh words for some of his old friends, training partners and students who don’t understand that he couldn’t allow himself to grow complacent if he wants to be the best. He expanded on those comments on The MMA Hour.
“They want me to stay in my gym in Hammond,” Torres said. “It doesn’t work that way. For me to get better I have to train with better guys, that are ahead of the game, and seek better training partners.”
Dealing with some of his local buddies has been difficult because they haven’t been supportive, and Torres even said he was “robbed” by a former manager, although he declined to go into details.
“I’m not going to go out there and say anything. I have some issues with a couple guys that owe me some money, and that kind of held me back for a little bit, too,” Torres said. “I’m not trying to carry that burden anymore. It’s too much.”
Torres says that while he has left some old friends behind in Indiana, Zihabi has turned his career around by teaching him to strategize and fight under control.
“My trainer and personal friend Firas Zihabi has controlled me,” Torres said. “There’s other ways to win a fight where you’re not going to get your hand broken or your brain smashed in or your face scarred up. … I’ve been training extremely hard. My mind is in a good place.”
And having his mind in the right place is all about focusing on winning, starting on Saturday against Pace. Torres said he believes that through it all, he’s going to get the bantamweight title back.
“You’re going to see me fighting for the title,” Torres said. “One hundred percent.”
* Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky will stop by the studio to talk about his Bellator 54 non-title fight against Ryan Roberts. He’ll also do a couple of T-shirt giveaways from his sponsor, Yoked Up apparel.
* And MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiapetta will look at all the storylines coming out of UFC 136.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
* Bellator bantamweight champion Zach Makovsky will stop by the studio to talk about his Bellator 54 non-title fight against Ryan Roberts. He’ll also do a couple of T-shirt giveaways from his sponsor, Yoked Up apparel.
* And MMA Fighting’s Mike Chiapetta will look at all the storylines coming out of UFC 136.
Of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193, 212-254-0237 or 212-254-0714.
*** You can also stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.
Watch the replay below. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.
LAS VEGAS — MMA Fighting spoke to trainer Firas Zahabi on Thursday about the Miguel Torres vs. Demetrious Johnson fight at UFC 130 and Torres evolution as a fighter since joining Tristar. Zahabi also talked about the possibility of seeing Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz in the near future.
LAS VEGAS — MMA Fighting spoke to trainer Firas Zahabi on Thursday about the Miguel Torres vs. Demetrious Johnson fight at UFC 130 and Torres evolution as a fighter since joining Tristar. Zahabi also talked about the possibility of seeing Georges St-Pierre vs. Nick Diaz in the near future.
Filed under: UFCWatching Firas Zahabi talk to reporter after reporter in Toronto last month, one almost got the feeling that he might be getting tired of answering questions about Georges St-Pierre.
So why not cut one of the most prominent trainers i…
Watching Firas Zahabi talk to reporter after reporter in Toronto last month, one almost got the feeling that he might be getting tired of answering questions about Georges St-Pierre.
So why not cut one of the most prominent trainers in the sport some slack, let him get his mind off his welterweight champ for a few minutes?
“Oh – you want me to talk (crap) about Miguel?” Zahabi asks, a smile on his face. “I can do that!”
Zahabi is most famous for the work he does at his Tristar Gym in Montreal with St-Pierre, the UFC welterweight champ, and ahead of GSP’s UFC 129 title defense in Toronto against Jake Shields, there were plenty of questions for the coach. But in the last 10 months, Zahabi has taken on a new challenge – revamping the fight game of former bantamweight kingpin Miguel Torres.
And so far, business has been good. Zahabi has helped Torres (39-3, 1-0 UFC) to back-to-back wins after he lost his WEC 135-pound title to Brian Bowles in August 2009, his first career knockout loss, and followed that up by tapping for the first time in a bloody loss to Joseph Benavidez. In fact, Zahabi believes that for Torres, the best is yet to come.
“I still think he’s got a lot of potential left, and it’s going to take some time to reach that,” Zahabi said. “But I don’t think he’s anywhere near where he’s going to be in the future.”
But Torres, who mostly self-trained at his own gym in Northwest Indiana until taking up with Zahabi last fall, gives a slightly different account of what his coach tells him in the gym.
“He hasn’t told me anything like that,” Torres said Wednesday. “Everything he tells me is pretty much negative – and that I’m garbage – so I can get better. But I feel like I’m getting better every day. When I came here, I saw what I was lacking in my game. I knew how much more I could pick up and how much better I could become.”
After a submission win over Charlie Valencia at WEC 51 last September and a unanimous decision over Antonio Banuelos in his UFC debut at UFC 126 in February, Torres was given Brad Pickett for UFC 130 next week. But five weeks before the fight, Pickett pulled out with an injury.
Pickett’s replacement, Demetrious Johnson (9-1, 1-0 UFC), raised a few eyebrows. Torres’ Achille’s heel has always been his wrestling. And “Mighty Mouse”? He was a standout high school wrestler in Washington and is coming off a dominating 10-takedown performance to beat Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto in February. But Torres’ wrestling is what he has worked on at length since his last loss.
“When I fought Benavidez, I had no wrestling skills whatsoever,” Torres said. “Now it’s been a year, and all I’ve been doing is wrestling. Every training camp involves wrestling. Every fight I go into involves wrestling. I’m very confident in my ability to stop takedowns and use counter-shots to take people down.”
Zahabi also makes no bones about Torres’ wrestling – but concurs with his student that overlooking his ability in that part of his game might be a mistake.
“It’s definitely his wrestling – I’ll admit to that. I have no problem – I like to say the truth,” Zahabi said. “But I’ll tell you one thing: He’s working very hard on that, and he’s not going to be easy to take down. He’s going to be even more difficult to hold down, and it’s going to be very hard to stop his submissions. So I’m confident for this fight.”
And so confident are Torres and Zahabi that they say Torres’ height and reach advantage – he’s 5-foot-9 vs. Johnson’s 5-3 – will force Johnson to shoot. And bring it on.
“Johnson shooting on me is the game plan,” Torres said. “I want the guy to try to shoot on me. My whole strength is developed to hit guys – to force them to have to shoot. They can’t touch me, they can’t strike with me – the longer we stand, the more I win. The longer we stand, the more he has to shoot to win the round. So as he shoots, as he comes in to try and touch me, he’s either going to get hit or he’s going to get sprawled out. Once he gets sprawled out, he’s going to give up his back or his neck. So for me, Demetrious shooting, him engaging me in a shot is going to result in me being able to use my full offense that has developed in the past year with Firas.”
And the past year, Zahabi has seen Torres grow from an almost reckless fighter, doing it all on his own, to the kind who can admit his shortcomings and allow himself to be called “garbage” by his coach. (Even if that’s a slight Torres exaggeration.)
“I’m very happy with Miguel,” Zahabi said. “He’s taken some serious steps to move himself forward. It takes somebody who is very proactive, somebody who is very responsible to do that.”
Torres and Johnson fight on the preliminary card of UFC 130 on May 28 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be part of the Spike TV’s live prelims broadcast, which starts at 8 p.m. Eastern ahead of the pay-per-view at 9 p.m.
Yves Jabouin‘s days of fighting at 145 pounds may soon be coming to an end.
Following Jabouin’s third loss in his last four fights at UFC 129, his head trainer Firas Zahabi said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour that it could be time for the exciting featherweight to consider moving down a weight class.
“I’m going to consider dropping him to 135,” Zahabi said. “That’s something I’ve talked to him about, and he could make 135 easily, I believe. He just doesn’t like cutting weight.
“You could see the great size difference between him and his opponent, and I’m a big believer in not giving away any advantages. I felt he gave away the size advantage, that’s why Garza was able to get some knees in and I think Yves’ striking is far beyond his opponent Pablo Garza. Garza is more of a jiu-jitsu specialist, but he is bigger and taller and had a weight advantage, so he was able to work his game.
“But I really believe Yves also has to go more to the drawing board and work more on jiu-jitsu and make some extra time for his jiu-jitsu.”
LAS VEGAS — MMA Fighting spoke to trainer 
Watching 
Yves Jabouin