"I always say to Georges he gets to live 3 nights out of the year and then its right back to the gym to get back to work. He fights one night and then he gets to party or whatever for the week and after 3 or 4 days, he's back in the gym working out. That's a lot of stress on a fighter, so we gave him a breather and now GSP is hungrier than ever to get back in the Octagon. I'm happy to see him back to like when we first started in mixed martial arts. We were so eager to have this adventure and now I think it's back for him. Sometimes, you know how when you step back from something, it makes you hungrier. I think this break did that for him, so in his next fight, I think we're going to have his best training camp that he's ever had," stated Firas Zahabi, head trainer of UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, as he talked about the future plans of GSP. Check out what else he had to say as he gives training updates on light heavyweight Jon "Bones" Jones, lightweight Kenny Florian and much more.

PC: How have you been Firas?

FZ: I've been great man.

PC: You have a couple of guys fighting here soon; Kenny Florian and Jon Jones. Let's talk about Kenny first. How is he doing in camp?

FZ: Kenny is training very hard. I couldn't be happier with the work that he's putting in. He's doing very well and he will be ready in December.

PC: Kenny recently split from long-time trainer Mark DellaGrotte and I don't think it was much of a surprise to see him join you. What did he tell you about that situation?

FZ: You know what? I didn't want to get involved with that. That's between him and Mark. I think they ended on good terms and I want to leave it at that. I have some big shoes to fill and I gotta do my best to make sure that Kenny looks good and do as well as I can. I really connect with the guy on a personal level as well. To me, it's one of my friends fighting as well. It's not just some guy that I am preparing for a fight, so I want to make sure that I'm doing everything that I can for him to get ready for this fight.

PC: It appears you have that relationship with all of your fighters. Is that one of the key things for you to not only connect with them from a trainer to fighter standpoint, but also on a personal level?

FZ: Absolutely. A lot of these guys I'm training, we are around the same age and I am with them every day. Like Georges, I am with him every day and we are very close in age, so we're going through a lot of the same things in life so on a personal level, we are very, very close. The lines don't get confused on the way. I'm the trainer and he's the fighter, but after the workout is done, we're like two friends and that's the motto for the fighters that I am training. The most important thing is to keep these guys learning, you know what I mean?

PC: No doubt. Whenever you switch trainers like Kenny recently did in making the move to join you, is it your job as his new trainer to look for things he's doing wrong and teach him new things or do you look to just tweak some of the things he was doing and leave him in that comfort zone?

FZ: It's very important that I show him different things. The reason why they change trainers is because they need something new. It doesn't mean that their old trainer wasn't good by any means; it's just that after a while, when you do a certain thing for so long, you can't get much better at it. You have reached your peak and need a new set of tools. So he needs to add this new tool that is going to surprise his opponents and add an extra edge on his style and that's what we're trying to do with Kenny. There is a learning curve and an adjustment period. You can't just learn a new style in one day, so what we're trying to do is tailor the style slowly and gently try to mold him into something a little bit different. Like I said, not that one style is necessarily better than the other one, but it's just after awhile, you can go farther when you learn something new because you have more room to improve. When you do the same things forever for years over a decade, it's hard to improve like that.

PC: You had to prepare GSP when he was coming off of his loss to Matt Serra after a very successful run. Kenny is now in the same boat. He had a long run of wins and is now coming off of a devastating loss to BJ Penn. How did you get Georges mentally prepared to forget the first Serra fight and what steps do you feel you need to take to get Kenny back mentally prepared?

FZ: Georges had one big problem. He was easier to hit than he should have been. He didn't have much…he was missing some very important tools. If you watch his first fight with BJ, he had very little head movement, his jab wasn't very developed yet and his footwork wasn't that great. He was more toe-to-toe at that point. He had that hard-nosed Karate style. More and more, over the years, we sharpened him up. He's got a very good jab now, he's sharper and he's less direct. He can come in on angles. His head movement and counterpunching is much better and that didn't happen overnight. If you look at his last 6 fights, he hasn't gotten hit very much. That's the core of my style. My style is based on defense. The core of our style is not to get hit and to have incredible defense and of course great offense too. But everybody has great offense. Everybody has a very thoughtful offense, everybody can hit really hard and everybody is very quick, you know? I think the difference between our style and a lot of other styles are that we focus a lot on defense and countering and making sure that when someone hits us, they get hit right back or us not getting hit at all and making them pay for trying.

As far as Kenny, mentally, I think he's very strong. He's a very strong mental fighter. Even after the fight with BJ, I believe he would want to do a rematch right away if he could. I know this guy is very strong mentally. As a coach, I work on the mental side always. I train them inside out. I always tell that to the guys. You have to train the inside first and then the body second. When you go to the gym, you train your mind as well and not just your body. There has to be some kind of mental aspect to your training. But Kenny is really strong there. That's not really one of his weaker points. That guy is willing to pay any price to win. It's not one of the areas where I am concerned when it comes to Kenny.

PC: We usually get the same thing from Clay Guida in every fight. He likes to apply pressure and exhibit some ground and pound. Are you guys expecting anything different or pretty much the same from Clay?

FZ: You know what? I do expect him to fight pretty much the same way he has always fought because it's a style that works for him. I actually thought a lot of the decisions that he's lost are ones that he could have won. It all depends on how the judges look at it, but I think he is one of the top lightweights in the world. I think he is a definite threat. But on terms of him doing something radical, no, I don't see that happening, but again, you never want to close that door on that option because then you get surprised. We will keep our eyes open and if we see something new or something fishy, we will let Kenny know. But I think Clay is going to pretty much stick to what has been working for him for so many years.

PC: A lot of fans seemed to like Jon Jones' move to go and train with you. How is he looking in his preparation for Matt Hamill?

FZ: (Laughing) Jon Jones man is a very special athlete. He's looking fantastic. The way he moves away to explode and some of the things he can do is something special. Every time I watch him spar, I learn something new. He's a work in progress still though because he's so young. He's 22 right now and it's incredible to believe what he's going to be like when he hits his prime; like 25, 28 or nearing his 30's. Right now, he's heading over to Greg Jackson's camp to work in the high altitude. Greg and I work extremely close together. It's such an interesting fight because he and Hamill have such different styles. It's kind of hard to predict what's going to happen. If you look at Hamill, he is so orthodox; his style is so orthodox. His boxing and his wrestling is really orthodox. He's an incredible athlete as well, but in a different way. Then you look at Jon Jones and he doesn't shoot the same way; he doesn't wrestle the same way that Matt Hamill does. He's more of an upper body wrestler. Then you look at his standup and it's so radical compared to Hamill's. His striking is about spinning elbows, flying knees and just really unorthodox, so in so many ways, they are so opposite of each other even though they are both high-caliber fighters.

PC: We have seen Matt use a lot more standup in his fights now as opposed to when he first came into the UFC. Do you think he will try to turn this into a wrestling match or do you see him being willing to trade with Jon?

FZ: I definitely think they are going to stand up and bang. I think they keep their wrestling in their pocket in case they get in trouble. The first guy that gets hurt may resort to wrestling, but I really think that these guys have developed such an arsenal in striking that they are very comfortable with it. If you look at Matt Hamill, when he fought Rich Franklin, he was so comfortable standing. He didn't look like a wrestler trying to take a striker down. He looked like a striker trying to bang. He mixed in a little wrestling; he tried to take Rich down a couple of times I believe, but he looked very comfortable and he's been striking for years now and so has Jon Jones and these guys are such tremendous athletes. You can teach them anything and they will learn it very quickly. It doesn't take them long to get it.

PC: Like you said, Jones is only 21 years old. Not saying he would have to move up to heavyweight or anything, but I'm sure you are expecting him to fill out more. Do you think, as he hits his prime, that the cut to 205 will become more difficult?

FZ: I think he's going to fill out, but I think he will manage to make 205. But he will definitely fill out more. We don't call him Bones for nothing. He is a lanky guy and I expect that when he hits 25 or 26, he will fill out a lot more. I really think he will fill out and manage to make 205. I don't think he will be jumping up. He is not that big to fight at heavyweight. I don't imagine so. I think the best thing would be for him to stay at light heavyweight even if he puts on a few extra pounds.

PC: There have been 2 guys in GSP's weight division that have had struggles making 170; Thiago Alves in the past and Anthony Johnson more recently. What is your take on these hard weight cuts and guys missing weight by so much?

FZ: I really think it is an unhealthy process to cut too much weight. I think 15 pounds is the most that you should cut and if you're cutting more than that, you should put on more muscle and go up a weight class. Weight cutting is very dangerous to the body, the brain, the function of the brain and the organs. It could take up to 48 hours to completely rehydrate, so regardless of what method you use to rehydrate, it's very dangerous on the body, so I don't recommend any of my fighters to cut more than 15 pounds. The more experienced guys, I will allow 20 pounds maximum. These guys are trying to cut 30 and that's crazy. If you look at the study on dehydration, you are so close to death at a certain point, you don't want to try and do that. Unfortunately, people die every year from trying to cut weight in wrestling tournaments in the United States and Canada; it happens every year. Too much is too much, so you gotta know when it's healthy and when it is not. It's going to come back on you over the years and cause you some kind of health problems. It can cause many health issues and I really don't recommend that.

PC: I know you wanted Georges to take some time off. With Mike Swick pulling out of the Kampmann fight and now being set to fight Dan Hardy at 105, it gave him some extra time before he had to defend his title. When would you like to see him back?

FZ: He's suspended for precautionary reasons until the New Year, but I think it was a good thing because we finally got to let him off of the leash a little bit. He's gotta live his life too. He's a young guy and it's hard for him to always say no to family functions and events. It's a lot of sacrifices at one point could wear down on you mentally. People are moving on with their lives and their lives are going by and you're just training and getting ready to live one night. I always say to Georges he gets to live 3 nights out of the year and then its right back to the gym to get back to work. He fights one night and then he gets to party or whatever for the week and after 3 or 4 days, he's back in the gym working out. That's a lot of stress on a fighter, so we gave him a breather and now GSP is hungrier than ever to get back in the Octagon. I'm happy to see him back to like when we first started in mixed martial arts. We were so eager to have this adventure and now I think it's back for him. Sometimes, you know how when you step back from something, it makes you hungrier. I think this break did that for him, so in his next fight, I think we're going to have his best training camp that he's ever had.

PC: I can't wait to see all of your guys back in the cage. I appreciate your time as always Firas. Is there anything you want to say in closing?

FZ: It was a pleasure man. Thank you!