Firas Zahabi Says ‘Ares’ Deserves Title Fight, Georges St-Pierre Will Be Back

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It was a good night for Firas Zahabi last night, as his biggest (active) star Rory MacDonald cruised to a one-sided decision win over Tyron Woodley at UFC 174’s co-main showing. ‘Ares’ looked to be back to his old self with his aggressive, technical punching, and made the division’s number three look amateur at best.

The talk now moves to the subject of a potential title shot for MacD, and his coach Zahabi believes that the 24 year old Canadian is ready. Check out what FZ had to say to MMAFighting.com after the fact last night:

I think it was his best performance ever, he really neutralized him well. I think he deserves a title shot. He was better than Tyron expected. We can take anyone down with our system, our shoot-box system works. He just lost one fight against Robbie Lawler, but Lawler has evolved so much. The fight with Hendricks was 50/50. People really underestimate Lawler, he is probably the best in the welterweight division, it’s 50/50 with Hendricks.”

‘Ruthless’ certainly put in great performances both in his fight against MacDonald, and the title fight against ‘Bigg Rigg’ at 171, so MacDonald’s set back becomes only more faded by the fact that he performed so well last night. Now edging a title shot, the obvious question is whether or not MacD would fight fellow Tri-Star athlete, and former champion Georges St-Pierre:

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They won’t fight each other. Georges will be back, I think there is a lot of fire and motivation left in him…he has more martial arts left in him. (for MacDonald) I think anyone in the top five is a great fight for him next, they are all great fighters at welterweight.”

Perhaps Georges St-Pierre’s absence has been the best motivator for MacDonald’s recent form, and will aid his title hopes at welterweight massively. But upon his potential return, what happens if MacDonald is the champion? Would GSP be happy with a non-title fight, or would he move up or down a weight class to avoid his friend and training partner?

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Whatever is next for MacD, you can bet it will be a whole lot more meaningful than what is in store for Tyron Woodley. ‘The Chosen One’ played the Jake Ellenberger card in Vancouver, but fortunately there was a ‘Canadian Psycho’ on form to win the day.