Firas Zahabi - Quebec’s Top MMA Coach

Firas Zahabi is a well-known MMA and BJJ coach from Quebec, Canada. He is the owner of the world-famous no. 1 Canadian gym, Tristar, the birthplace of many of Canada’s MMA fighters. Zahabi is Canada’s best MMA coach as he helped train various BJJ students who became big names in the grappling circuit.

Firas Zahabi and his brother discovered a love for sports during their early childhood. They were big fans of and loved to play American football. Zahabi even took part in local amateur football matches. At this point, the brothers had little exposure to martial arts. 

In 1998, Zahabi was introduced to MMA and grappling. He watched Royce Gracie at the UFC championship where he demonstrated his techniques and won the tournament. It was the second match of Royce Gracie. Young Canadian also watched his first match and was amazed to see his style of fighting. From then on, Zahabi was inspired by Gracie and resolved to create his own fighting style.

At the time, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu had not reached Montreal and there were no GJJ teachers. However, this did not discourage Zahabi as he began studying and practicing the movements in GJJ with his brother and friends.    

In 2000, a purple belt student of Renzo Gracie named Angelo Exarhakos moved to Canada and joined a local gym named Tristar. He started coaching Gracie Jiu-Jitsu at the gym. Zahabi took this as an opportunity to start his martial arts training at the age of 20 and joined Tristar. He trained in jiu-jitsu under Exarhakos. Later, he also started to train in Muay Thai (Thai boxing).    

Zahabi’s first two coaches who played a vital role in his development were Angelo Exarhakos and Wagnney Fabiano. As stated above, Exarhakos was one of Renzo Gracie’s students, while Fabiano was a black belt from Nova Uniao. In 1999, he moved to Toronto, though Zahabi made sure to visit him regularly.  

Zahabi was a dedicated and motivated student that spent most of his time on the mat. Due to his hard work, he was promoted to blue belt just after six months of training. 

Exahakos could only visit Tristar three times per week. Tristar needed a full-time teacher and Zahabi was the most dedicated student at the gym. He was offered a job as a jiu-jitsu coach at the gym. He accepted and started his coaching career as a blue belt.    

While learning BJJ, Zahabi also attended classes at Concordia University to earn his bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Due to being busy at university, he could not compete regularly in jiu-jitsu championships. Although he rarely appeared in freestyle wrestling, kickboxing, and grappling.       

Cornald Plas, the owner, and co-founder of Tristar, found he did not have time to run the gym. In 2007, he handed control of the gym over to Zahabi. He later bought the gym and became the official owner of Tristar.    

During the 2000s, Zahabi started visiting John Danaher at Renzo Gracie Academy in New York. His most well-known student Pierre also started visiting Renzo Gracie Academy in New York. This interaction between Zahabi and Danaher’s relationship helped both Tristar and Renzo Gracie Academy become closer as the students also benefited from this interaction. Both academies started exchanging their students as well as their ideas with each other. 

At Renzo Gracie Academy, Zahabi got the chance to train with famous fighters like John Danaher, Roger Gracie, and Braulio Estima. He often mentions them as major influences in his development.   

Zahabi was promoted to black belt by John Danaher in 2011.    

Zahabi spent his childhood with his family in Quebec, Canada. His parents were of Lebanese descent. Zahabi is happily married to Melissa Gendron, whom he met at university. He has three children: two sons named Ayman Zahabi and Noah Zahabi and a daughter named Alissa Dean Zahabi.

Zahabi is the elder brother of Canadian mixed martial artist, Aiemann Zahabi. He is a bantamweight competitor in the UFC. His MMA record is 10-2-2. He won the “Performance of the Night” award once against Drako Rodriguez. 

Firas Zahabi loves MMA and his life struggles also proved it. Firas Zahabi started MMA training without any coach and then nature made way for him. He took that opportunity and now he is a big name in the list of MMA trainers and BJJ coaches. Firas Zahabi said:

According to Firas Zahabi, multiple people are born with the ability to fight or play other sports. Let your children discover themselves if they are interested and experts in a specific game, let them play that. They are born to play that game. His words are

George St-Pierre, also known as GSP, is Zahabi’s most famous and accomplished student. He was also Zahabi’s first MMA student. Known as the greatest MMA fighter of all time, St-Pierre is the UFC champion in two weight divisions and has defended his title nine consecutive times.

Roger Sportsnet has given St-Pierre the Canadian Athlete of the Year award for consecutive three years, from 2008 to 2010. He retired from MMA as the 2013 Welterweight Champion. But he eventually returned to compete in the middleweight division and won the title of UFC Middleweight Champion. Due to health issues, St-Pierre finally retired from MMA in 2017.

St-Pierre had won multiple awards from several organizations and was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. St-Pierre also starred in multiple films like Death Warrior, Never Surrender, Cartels, etc. His MMA record is 26-2-0.

Arnold Allen is a mixed martial artist ranked fourth in the UFC during 2023. Allen fought in three weight divisions, including the bantamweight division from 2012 to 2013.

In 2014, Allen fought as a lightweight competitor, then from 2014 onwards, he became a featherweight competitor. Allen won three times, performance of the night award. He also appeared in three fights in kickboxing and won all of them. His MMA record is 19-2-0.

Miguel Torres is a well-known and accomplished MMA fighter under Zahabi. He fought in three MMA weight divisions: bantamweight, featherweight, and lightweight. Torres is also the WEC Bantamweight Champion, having defended his title for three years. Torres also won “Fight of the Night” twice. He also won the “Submission of the Night” award at WEC. His MMA record is 44-9-0.

Rory MacDonalds is a mixed martial artist and the Bellator Welterweight World Champion. He has won multiple awards during his MMA career, including:

• UFC Fight of the Night (once)
• Performance of the Night (once)
• Bellator Welterweight Champion
• Canadian Fighter of the Year (2012) by Top MMA News
• Fighter of the Year (2015) by World MMA Awards
  
  

MacDonalds announced his retirement from MA in 2022. His MMA record is 23-10-1.  

Denis Kang is a middleweight fighter and a third-degree BJJ black belt. He won the “Fight of the Night” award in the UFC and ROAD FC. He has a high submission rate with 14 submissions out of 35 winning fights. His MMA record is 35-16-2.

Ethan Crelinsten is a Canadian grappler who represented both Tristar and Renzo Gracie Academy in the grappling circuit. He trained from a white belt to a brown belt under Zahabi. When the two academies formed a closer relationship, Crelinsten was promoted to black belt by John Danaher in 2020.

Crelinsten, alongside Nicky Ryan and Craig Jones, announced the founding of their own academy, B-Team. He has a high submission rate, having won 22 out of 36 matches via submission. On the other hand, he lost only three matches via submission. Listed below are his BJJ achievements:

Oliver Taza is a Canadian grappler of Lebanese descent. He represented Tristar, Renzo Gracie Academy, and New Waves in the grappling circuit. Taza started his BJJ training under Zahabi and trained at Tristar until he became a purple belt. Later, he started to visit Renzo Gracie Academy to train with Danaher.

Taza has a high submission rate and has won 72 fights out of 120 via submission. He lost only two fights via submission. He was promoted to black belt by Danaher in New York in 2020.

Answer: Firas Zahabi recommended the book “Managing Oneself” by Peter Drucker multiple times. He is a big fan of this book. Other books Firas Zahabi recommended are “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey, “The ONE Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, and “Time Warrior” by Steven Chandler.

Answer: Zahabi stated in an interview,

Answer: Zahabi advises improving cardio to help improve your BJJ skills. If you are using the incorrect technique for a specific situation, you will become tired sooner. The most effective method to increase cardiovascular endurance is by running regularly.

Photo Credit: @firas_zahabi