Kevin Lee Heaps Praise on Firas Zahabi & GSP, While Discussing Move to Tristar

After losing three of his last four fights, Kevin Lee decided it was time for a change, and it looks like that will include training out of Montreal’s Tristar gym moving forward.

Lee is coming off a submission loss to Rafael dos Anjos in May, and that bout also marked the first time “The Motown Phenom” had competed at welterweight in the Octagon. Recently Lee spoke with Submission Radio,and he reported he’s completed a four city tour, while on the search for a new home gym. While doing so, Lee had this to say about Tristar’s head coach, Firas Zahabi, as well as the Montreal gym’s greatest fighter, Georges St-Pierre (quotes via MMA Mania):

“(I went) to try and find that guy out there, that somebody who would really speak to me. And to be honest, I feel like I did in Montreal with Tristar and Firas Zahabi,” Lee said. “Just having him and being around him and getting to pick his brain and his mind and seeing how it works. I feel like that’s what I’ve been missing. I know that’s what I’ve been missing a little bit ever since my coach Robert Follis passed, I haven’t had that guy to really guide me and show me the correct way of what to do. I’ve just been kind of trying to listen to myself and figure I got it enough.”

“He (St-Pierre) understands it. We’re martial artists, we’re competitors,” Lee said about GSP. “If I’m not trying to push myself to the limit and I’m not trying to fight the best that’s out there, then I feel like he wouldn’t understand me as much. I think he’s got the same kind of fire in him.

“He’s going to train with me a lot. I feel like he’ll be another one of those great minds that I can kind of pick,” he added. “Seeing what makes him tick and what made him such a great champion, those are the things that I think will boost me to the next level.”

It will be interesting to see how Lee performs as a result of this change. It wasn’t long ago when Lee was in the title shot mix at 155, and last April, he scored a dominant, stoppage win over Edson Barboza. The 26-year-old is currently based out of Las Vegas.