Firas Zahabi claims Georges St. Pierre was sick just prior to bout with Nick Diaz

Without creating any excuses, it seems that there was a logical explanation for Georges St. Pierre’s visual fatigue and fairly consistent glances at the clock in the later rounds of the fight.

According to head trainer and good friend Firas Zahabi, the Welterweight Champion was in the beginning stages of developing some sort of sickness and had produced somewhat of a fever and uneasy feeling in the final moments leading up to the inevitable confrontation in the octagon.

Zahabi, who was recently a guest on The MMA Hour had the following to say regarding the sickness:

“He was sick, you know. He had a bit of the start of a fever. He was a bit warm. But, what are you going to do? You’re not always going to have a perfect fight, you know? Everybody is a little injured, everybody is a bit busted up. He wasn’t sick enough to pull the plug on the fight, but he did have the start of the fever. He was warm and he was feeling a little uneasy. He was feeling a little sick.”

This would make sense considering the fact that most fans had observed Georges beginning to slow down, possibly showing signs of age or decline.

It figures that Georges wasn’t completely on, as it would be difficult to think that a fighter would begin to decline at such a young age. If anything Georges has improved with every fight, continuing to round out his game and strategy more and more with every new opponent and challenge.

And who knows, if this claim is accurate, while this theory is completely speculative, it’s very possible that Georges could have been even more dominant, pushed the pace further, harder, longer and possibly even attained that elusive finish he has been soo strongly desiring and repeatedly promising over and over.