WASHINGTON, D.C. — Beneath the heat glow of Madison Sq. Backyard’s spiderweb ceiling, cruising to a choice victory whereas carrying the confidence of a fighter who’d by no means misplaced earlier than, Aiemann Zahabi pressed his opponent into the fence with a flurry, searching for to arrange a left hook.
It’s the last item he remembers. A half hour of Zahabi’s reminiscence is misplaced, from consuming a Ricardo Ramos spinning again elbow on the button, to the crown of his head bouncing off the canvas, to strolling backstage and talking to medical doctors whereas they shone a flashlight in his pupils and glided fingers alongside his jawbone.
Zahabi’s subsequent recollection is available in the again of an ambulance, being transported to the hospital whereas realizing he’d misplaced his undefeated MMA file, suffered the first knockout of his life, and ceded the profession momentum he’d constructed over the final half-decade suddenly.
“I’d by no means tasted defeat — by no means been concussed or rocked or dropped in coaching ever,” Zahabi says, reflecting on that 2017 loss to Ramos at UFC 217. “I misplaced my confidence.”
It took a full 18 months for the penalties of that have to materialize at a UFC Combat Night time in Ottawa, when Zahabi, who handled important post-concussion signs for the higher a part of a 12 months following his knockout, lastly returned to the octagon to face UFC newcomer Vince Morales.
Preventing timidly with out the self-assurance that after outlined him, Zahabi left his nook all three rounds, interested by how to stop his opponent from knocking him out fairly than the reverse. Hesitant to transfer ahead and pull the set off, he landed single-digit strike totals in every of his first two rounds and whiffed on 4 of 5 half-hearted takedown makes an attempt, dropping a unanimous resolution to a fighter beneath his true expertise stage.
With out these two losses, and almost two full years of soul looking that adopted, Zahabi doesn’t consider he’d be right here now, getting ready to put a seven-fight win streak on the line towards one in all the UFC’s most marketable stars — with a bantamweight title shot hanging in the stability — at the firm’s marquee occasion of 2026.
“I really feel that approach as a result of each losses had been at reverse ends of the similar spectrum,” says Zahabi, who will battle ostentatious former champion Sean O’Malley Saturday at UFC Freedom 250 on the White Home’s south garden. “One in every of them, I went out due to my conceitedness. I disregarded my defence and took an excessive amount of threat. And the subsequent one, I used to be a shell of myself. I could not open up. I did not take any threat in any respect.”
The son of Lebanese immigrants who fled Beirut in the 1970’s throughout the nation’s civil battle, Zahabi grew up in Laval, QC, the youngest of 4 brothers who all pursued martial arts of their youth. Their father — Ismat, a mechanic and taxi driver who labored round the clock to help the household — insisted they study self-defence to deter being bullied at college.
That introduced a 13-year-old Zahabi to the hole-in-the-wall Tristar Fitness center in a then-underdeveloped space of Montreal now generally known as The Triangle. Even whereas escorted by the subsequent youngest of the brothers, Firas, Zahabi was intimidated.
Everybody was of their 20’s and had little interest in working with a 5’0, 120-lbs. teenager. Zahabi was typically left to practice with Firas, who, at 21-years-old, was forging his personal path as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt and coach to a secure of younger fighters, together with a neighborhood nightclub bouncer by the identify of Georges St-Pierre.
A byproduct of Zahabi spending a lot time beneath his brother’s tutelage was speedy enchancment and ability growth, significantly in Muay Thai, the place his measurement mattered lower than in grappling and jiu-jitsu. (It didn’t harm that legendary Muay Thai grasp Peter Sisomphou, mentor to generations {of professional} fighters, was additionally instructing at Tristar at the time.)
By 16, Zahabi was already filling in for Firas, instructing courses to informal amateurs whereas his brother was guiding fighters at competitions. And at 18, he began tagging alongside together with his brother to nook professionals.
Zahabi was with David Loiseau as he was stacking wins on his approach to a middleweight title shot towards Wealthy Franklin at UFC 58. He rode with Rory MacDonald when he obtained huge alternatives towards Carlos Condit, Nate Diaz, and BJ Penn. He was in Miguel Torres’ nook when he misplaced to Demetrious Johnson in a bantamweight title eliminator.
All the whereas, Zahabi was instructing courses at Tristar to make ends meet whereas finding out commerce at McGill College and dwelling in a cluttered condominium beneath the health club together with his future spouse, Sylva, and coaching associate, Mandel Nallo. However as teaching and cornering obtained busier, time to research evaporated, and Zahabi’s grades dipped.
In the meantime, skilled fighters he educated and felt had been simply as expert as he had been seeing success. Some even reached the UFC. On a whim at some point in 2012, Zahabi marched into his brother’s workplace — as he constructed his teaching enterprise, Firas slowly collected fairness in Tristar, which he now owns outright — to announce he was going professional himself.
“Firas didn’t actually need me to battle, as a result of there was no cash in preventing at the time,” Zahabi says. “There was more cash in instructing and working courses. However I used to be like, ‘You understand what, man? I’m solely going to be younger as soon as. Let me take this opportunity. And if I don’t make it to the UFC by 30, I’ll return to college.’”
5 years later, simply 9 months shy of his thirtieth birthday, Zahabi made his UFC debut with a unanimous resolution victory over Reginaldo Vieira. Incomes $12,000 to present and $12,000 to win on his entry-level contract, Zahabi was nonetheless working a deficit. However after making $750 to present and $750 to win in his ultimate battle earlier than becoming a member of the group, it nonetheless felt like he’d lastly made it and the relaxation can be simple.
“I obtained misplaced in the hype and the theatrics of all of it. I obtained carried away in my success. I used to be distracted from what was vital,” Zahabi says. “I’d by no means misplaced, by no means been harm. I assumed no person may contact me. I wasn’t staying on prime of my recreation.”
The truth test got here shortly in the type of that Ramos spinning again elbow at Madison Sq. Backyard. And after almost two years off, Zahabi returned passive and gun-shy, dropping the unanimous resolution to Morales. He’d gone from unbeatable to a spot many by no means return from by his third UFC battle.
That triggered him to rethink every thing. Zahabi dove into psychology and private growth. He caught his nostril in a pile of books, from Geoffrey Colvin’s Expertise is Overrated to Carol Dweck’s Mindset.
He began coaching beneath famend grappling coach John Danahar at Renzo Gracie’s academy in New York, driving six hours from Montreal each Sunday, getting in three coaching periods inside 24 hours, and returning dwelling Monday night time so he may flip up for sparring at Tristar on Tuesday mornings.
“I had to stage up. I had no alternative,” Zahabi says. “I took the time that I wanted to come again with a vengeance. I put my blinders on, and I did the work that I had to do.”
Again in the octagon for the first time in almost two years at UFC’s cavernous Apex facility in February 2021 — preventing Drako Rodriguez, a Contender Collection winner over a decade his junior — Zahabi began tentatively once more. He circled the perimeter, letting Rodriguez management the centre.
However two minutes into the first spherical, after sitting on the incorrect finish of one-way visitors, one thing modified. Zahabi caged reduce to the center and pushed ahead into vary with a mix. And a minute later, he adopted a jab with an overhand proper that dropped Rodriguez with a thud.
Amongst the books Zahabi learn throughout his soul-searching interval was Phil Stutz’s The Instruments, which helped him type the mantra he credit not just for discovering that punch, however serving to flip his profession round and anchor every thing he’s accomplished since: I like the worry; the worry will set me free.
“I simply began to do every thing I can to face my demons. I began embracing the worry as a lot as potential and doing issues I did not like to do or that I used to be afraid of making an attempt,” Zahabi says. “I used to be taking up extra threat. However not a lot threat that I find yourself like the Ramos battle.”
A efficiency of the night time bonus helped ship Zahabi dwelling with a six-figure payday greater than triple his profession earnings. That, plus Sylva’s job as an administrative director at her father’s autobody store, introduced flexibility and allowed Zahabi to cut back distractions in his life exterior coaching.
Quickly, the ball was actually rolling. He gained six straight, punctuated by a press release efficiency throughout his greatest alternative but — preventing dwelling legend Jose Aldo in entrance of a house crowd at UFC 315 in Montreal, when Zahabi rallied from a third-round knockdown to pour on late quantity and win unanimously.
That purchased one other name-brand check with Marlon “Chito” Vera 5 months later in Vancouver. Once more, Zahabi overcame a flash knockdown — plus a fractured ulna in his left arm suffered throughout the second spherical — to out-strike his opponent and end stronger, eking out a cut up resolution.
Which is how Zahabi, now 38, ended up booked for the White Home garden towards one in all the most recognizable fighters on this weekend’s card. And if he can prolong his win streak to eight — significantly if it’s emphatically — he’ll be as nicely positioned as anyone in his division for the subsequent shot at 135-lbs. champion Petr Yan, who’s already crushed three of the 5 fighters at the moment ranked forward of No. 6 Zahabi.
In fact, O’Malley’s observe file — he gained and defended UFC’s bantamweight title prior to his thirtieth birthday, leaving a spotlight reel of knockouts alongside the approach — plus the UFC’s apparent want to return him to relevancy, after a deflating, 15-month interval outlined by consecutive high-profile losses to Merab Dvalishvili, means Zahabi will enter the battle as a considerable underdog. Not that it’s something new.
“Everybody thinks I suck. Everybody counts me out each battle. I really feel like they see me as the backside of the barrel and that I get fortunate,” Zahabi says. “And no person counts me as a striker. I discover that so humorous. When it comes down to it, I fought the two deadliest strikers in the division — Aldo and Chito, who’ve the most knockdowns in my weight class.
“Aldo missed weight by eight kilos. I took the battle, and I didn’t wrestle him. I broke my arm preventing Chito, nonetheless didn’t wrestle him. And in each performances, I got here again after getting dropped. That’s why I obtained this battle. The UFC trusts that I’m going to present up and carry out. They belief that I’m going to give them a hell of a battle.”
Which brings us again to that stability between reservation and threat. The octagon is suffering from what Zahabi calls “banana peels.” The misstep that places you off stability immediately into an enormous shot. The harm that compromises your skill to battle the approach you want to. The effective line between measured aggressiveness and wild overzealousness.
Making an attempt to create a hell of a battle means embracing a substantial amount of the threat Zahabi’s spent his 30’s studying how to handle. And taking the incorrect probabilities can carry dramatic penalties towards a sniper like O’Malley.
But when Zahabi realized one factor from his final time on a stage this grand, over-pursuing Ramos beneath that heat glow of the Backyard, it’s that he wants to embrace the worry of opening up towards a championship-level striker like O’Malley. He wants to find it irresistible. As a result of the worry will set him free.
“Preventing, it’s a fantastic factor, man. It takes all three sides of the human expertise — psychological, bodily, and religious,” Zahabi says. “You’ve got to be clever. You’ve got to be sturdy. And you’ve got to consider, actually consider, you will get to the different facet of no matter hell you’re going via. If you’d like to make it, you’ve gotta leap. That’s life.”
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