Firas Zahabi

Firas Zahabi was born on February 5, 1980, in Quebec, Canada, the son of Lebanese immigrants. Growing up, he and his brothers were devoted American football fans, and the sport consumed most of his extracurricular energy across a number of local amateur teams. Martial arts played no part in his early plans — until 1998, when a single television event redirected the course of his life.

It was an early edition of the Ultimate Fighting Championship — a no-holds-barred tournament — that served as Zahabi's awakening. Watching Royce Gracie dismantle opponents with calm, systematic efficiency that seemed to defy size and athleticism, the young Canadian was transfixed. Royce had already won the inaugural tournament, and his second dominant performance left Zahabi with an urgent desire to understand and learn jiu-jitsu. The problem was that Montreal, at the time, had no legitimate Gracie Jiu-Jitsu instructors to learn from.

Undeterred, Zahabi did what few would: he began studying the movements on his own. For months, he drilled techniques with his brothers and a small circle of friends in private, piecing together what he could before any formal instruction became available. It was an unconventional, self-directed beginning — and it reflected the determination that would come to define his approach to martial arts.

Finding Formal Instruction

The turning point came in 2000, when Angelo Exarhakos — a Renzo Gracie BJJ purple belt — began coaching at a local Montreal martial arts gym called Tristar. Zahabi enrolled immediately, finally gaining access to structured jiu-jitsu instruction. He soon added Muay Thai to his training schedule, an early signal of the integrated MMA coaching philosophy he would later build his career upon.

Zahabi's progress was rapid. He earned his BJJ blue belt within six months of formal training — a pace that reflected both the groundwork laid during his self-directed period and an almost obsessive dedication to the mats. His commitment was so evident that when Exarhakos could only attend the gym three times per week, Zahabi became the natural choice to fill the remaining coaching slots. When Exarhakos eventually stepped away from coaching entirely due to professional obligations, Zahabi assumed full control of the grappling program.

Taking charge of the classroom brought a significant stylistic shift: Zahabi shed the gi and moved exclusively to no-gi training, a format he maintained for approximately nine years before returning to the kimono.

Academic Pursuits and Competitive Development

Running alongside his development on the mats was an equally demanding academic pursuit. Zahabi completed a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Concordia University in Montreal — managing his studies while simultaneously building and running a grappling program, which left limited room for a personal competition career. He did compete in kickboxing, grappling, and freestyle wrestling during this period, though the demands of coaching and university kept his competitive appearances sparse.

An important figure during these formative years was Wagnney Fabiano, a well-regarded Nova União black belt who relocated to Toronto in 1999. Over the course of a couple of years, Zahabi made regular trips to train with Fabiano, and the Brazilian's influence registered deeply in Zahabi's developing grappling framework.

Taking Ownership of TriStar

In 2007, Conrad Plas — the owner and co-founder of TriStar Gym — shifted focus to other business ventures and handed the reins of the academy to Zahabi, who would later purchase the gym outright. The mid-2000s thus marked a double inflection point: Zahabi became both the proprietor of TriStar and the lead coach of one of MMA's most consequential athletes.

The New York Connection

The relationship between TriStar Gym and the Renzo Gracie Academy in New York City grew organically from Georges St-Pierre's regular visits to train under John Danaher. Beginning around the mid-2000s, Zahabi began making those trips to New York himself, and what started as accompaniment evolved into one of the most formative coaching relationships of his career.

Training in Danaher's now-legendary blue basement, Zahabi was exposed not only to Danaher's analytical approach to jiu-jitsu but also to a constellation of elite practitioners. Braulio Estima and Roger Gracie — two of the sport's all-time greats — are both cited by Zahabi as enormous influences on his grappling mindset. The cross-pollination between TriStar and Renzo's proved mutually beneficial, with ideas and athletes flowing between the two world-class environments in ways that enriched both programs.

In 2011, after years of consistent collaboration and development, John Danaher promoted Zahabi to the rank of BJJ black belt — a recognition that formalized what had already become a deep and enduring partnership.

Witnessing a Technical Revolution

Zahabi's perspective on Danaher is unequivocal. In a discussion on the TriStar Gym YouTube channel in July 2026, responding to dismissive comments made by Kron Gracie about Danaher, Zahabi stated: "John Danaher, in my opinion, I've worked with him directly for many years. I'm a black belt under John Danaher. He is the greatest jiu-jitsu coach of all time and arguably the greatest MMA coach of all time."

Central to Zahabi's defense was his firsthand witness to the technical revolution that Danaher and the Danaher Death Squad brought to leg lock systems. Zahabi described watching Danaher methodically develop and refine techniques including the kani basami from the bottom and the inside heel hook — work that eventually spread across the entire competitive landscape of jiu-jitsu. As Zahabi put it: "The man applied his mind on one endeavor and changed the whole face of Jiu Jitsu ... People started doing Kani Basami from the bottom, inside heel hook, it became a craze, and that was all John Danaher's fine tuning. I won't say he invented it, but he fine tuned it." He was careful to add: "I was there, I was live, I was in the practice room when he was doing it. He was figuring out these leg lock issues from day one."

Guiding Georges St-Pierre

The professional chapter that most defines Zahabi's public reputation began in the wake of Georges St-Pierre's loss to Matt Serra at UFC 69. In the aftermath of that defeat, Zahabi stepped into the role of GSP's lead coach — a position from which he helped guide one of the most dominant championship runs in MMA history. St-Pierre is widely regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, and Zahabi's central role in that development stands as the cornerstone of his coaching legacy.

MMA and Grappling Rosters

Beyond GSP, Zahabi's coaching at TriStar Gym produced a roster of accomplished fighters. Miguel Torres, Denis Kang, and Rory McDonald number among his most prominent MMA students, each representing different facets of the technical, well-rounded approach to combat that Zahabi has long championed.

On the grappling side, Zahabi's influence is felt most strongly in no-gi competition, where he helped develop a cohort of elite athletes. Ethan Crelinsten, Oliver Taza, and Pierre-Olivier Leclerc all emerged from the TriStar environment and established themselves among the strongest no-gi competitors in the world — a direct reflection of the technical foundation Zahabi built at the gym and the connections forged through the TriStar–Renzo Gracie axis.

Advocacy and Accountability

Zahabi has used his platform to speak candidly on difficult subjects within the sport. He has publicly addressed the prevalence of performance-enhancing drugs in BJJ, arguing that even highly technical practitioners are not immune to temptation, and framing the issue as a matter of athlete integrity and long-term competitive fairness. In his July 2026 defense of Danaher, he extended this principle to the question of coaching legacy, directly challenging Kron Gracie's standing as a coach: "I've never heard of a single Kron Gracie student. I've never heard of a Kron Gracie MMA star built under Kron Gracie" — a pointed contrast drawn to underscore what Zahabi views as Danaher's unmatched and documented impact on both MMA and grappling.

Principle-Driven Coaching

Zahabi's background in philosophy — earned through his bachelor's degree at Concordia University — manifests in a reflective, principle-driven approach to both coaching and his own athletic life. He has long distinguished between greatness achieved through natural means and results obtained through pharmacological shortcuts, framing that distinction not as moral judgment but as a question of what achievements actually mean.

Personal Regimen and Longevity Planning

This principled stance extends to his own practices and plans. Maintaining a rigorous personal regimen that includes daily training, isometric work, and a diet of approximately 200 grams of protein per day, Zahabi has been transparent about the deliberate effort required to preserve physical capacity as he ages.

In a gym Q&A session in September 2026, at age 46, Zahabi spoke openly about his intention to begin testosterone replacement therapy when he reaches approximately 50 years old — framing it explicitly as a health and longevity measure, not a competitive performance tool. His statements were characteristically direct: "Me, one day I will go st*roids. But I'm going to be open about it. I'm going to be like, hey guys, I'm 50 years old now and I'm taking st*roids and this is what I'm taking. And this is what it's done to my performance."

He drew a sharp line between therapeutic use and excess: "I'm not going to be like a Liver King. No, no, no, I'm not going to be that." His elaboration centered on the physiological reality of aging: "I just want a healthy amount where I can still function fully healthy and live longer. Okay, so I'm not going to be doing like a juice monkey thing. But there is a time in life where if your testosterone drops a certain amount, you need to bring it back up."

As of September 2026, Zahabi had not begun TRT and indicated that the timing would depend on how his natural hormone levels evolve. His willingness to discuss these plans publicly — in a sport where PED use is often clandestine — reflects a broader advocacy for transparency in athlete health management, consistent with the same principles that underpin his criticism of performance-enhancing drug culture in competitive BJJ.