Firas Zahabi, head coach of Rory McDonald, believes that his fighter is even better after suffering defeat in his last fight. At UFC 167, in November, the young Canadian lost to Robbie Lawler in the judges' decision, which ended up leaving him a little further away from the belt.
However, Zahabi is confident that MacDonald learned a lot from the setback, which will be put into practice in his next fight, against Demian Maia, this Saturday (22).
“[Defeat] is not a bad thing if you learn something from it. We still need to see if it was good or bad for this young fighter's career. The fight with Robbie Lawler it was good to prepare us for future lessons”, said Zahabi, in an interview with the North American website “MMA Junkie”. “A good inspiration is Robbie himself. He was fired from the UFC and managed to turn things around: now, he will fight for the title. He’s an inspiring guy”, he praised.
To avoid Maia's dangerous jiu-jitsu game, Zahabi revealed that MacDonald trained with Olympic judoka Travis Stevens. “Stevens helped us with the unique method Maia uses to bring people down. He doesn't use judo or wrestling much; he uses a mix of both,” he assessed. “The strategy must be flexible. There is no secret. You don't want to be on the bottom Demian Maia. It’s not a place where he’s very vulnerable.”
the fight between Demian Maia e Rory McDonald is part of the main card of UFC 170, which will feature, in its most important fight, a title fight between Ronda Rousey e Sara McMann.
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