Q&A Exclusive: Aiemann Zahabi aims to send José Aldo into retirement

Aiemann Zahabi is currently on a five-match winning streak at bantamweight and intends to continue this success on 10 May, when he faces José Aldo at UFC 315.

DAZN News spoke to the Canadian, who is trained at Tristar by Firas Zahabi, his older brother and the former trainer of Georges Saint-Pierre. 

DAZN News: Jose Aldo is a legend. What do you think of him?

Aiemann Zahabi: I would love to have a career like his. It would be great to hold the title, have his title defenses, and be a champion just like him. So yeah, he's definitely a role model for a lot of people. He’s come from nothing, and I've come from nothing, too. I'm hoping to build my name off him.

DN: What is the goal for this fight?

AZ: I don't care about the result as long as I look like who I am. I don't want to go in there and choke. I don't want anything to affect me. The goal for me is to go there and fight at my best. If I do that, I should win. But in the end, nothing matters as long as I do my best. The goal is to knock him out. I think this fight is going to be standing the whole time. He and GSP have the best takedown defense in UFC history, they are the hardest guys to take down. I'm not going to waste too much of my time trying to take him down. I'm going to try to beat him up.

DN: As GSP said to you, is the real danger not respecting him enough?

AZ: The biggest danger is the fact that he is a great striker. A lot of people say he's past his prime or whatever, but he still has a high fight IQ. He has a lot of power in his hands. He loves to punch to the body. He has a really good left hook, and it’s tricky. Either he goes for the left hook to the body or the left hook to the head. Those are probably his best punches when he attacks my right side with his left hand. Another really dangerous weapon is his counter knee. If you step in too hard on him, he throws that knee right up top. He’s knocked people out with that knee before.

DN: You are on a five-fight winning streak in the UFC and ranked 14th in the bantamweight division. Aldo is ranked higher than you. If you win, what’s next?

AZ: If I beat Aldo, I'd be on a six-fight winning streak, and I feel like I can build enough momentum to fight someone ranked between number 10 and number 4, somewhere in that range. I would like to fight somebody in that range. Then, if I win again, I would love to fight either for the belt or for the number one contender spot. We’re close to the title. I feel like I’m the closest Canadian male to the belt since Rory MacDonald.

DN: Is the title somewhere in the back of your mind?

AZ: I've never been this close in my life to getting a belt. It's funny because in my amateur career, I never got to fight for a championship. In the local scene, I never got to fight a champion. I got to the UFC at 6-0. It's interesting, I haven't held any MMA titles. It would be a dream come true to win the UFC title as my first.

DN: You lost two of your first three UFC fights. Now you’re on a winning streak. What was the problem at the start, and what do you have now?

AZ: I didn't have as much experience as a lot of the guys. I got to the big league without too much experience. I won that first fight, then I lost one because it was too much. I didn't think anybody could hurt me. I had never been KO’d or dropped or anything like that. Then, after the second loss, it was harder because I thought I was mentally ready to come back after the KO, but I was weak mentally. When I got into the fight, my anxiety was increasing as the fight went on, whereas normally it's the opposite. Usually, after the first round, my confidence goes up. But in that fight, it was the opposite, my confidence was going down. I had to read a lot of books and figure out that I love the pain. The pain will set me free. I love the fear. The fear sets me free. There's no other way to fight but with courage. To fight afraid is not good for me. It's not good for anybody around me.

DN: You are 37 years old. Have you ever thought about retirement?

AZ: I feel great. All the young guys at my gym still don’t touch me. [I'll continue] at least until I’m 40, that's for sure. Until 40, I feel like that's going to be easy. We’ll decide then, but at least a few more years.

DN: Firas is your older brother. He’s also your head coach. How do you manage that?

AZ: It's up and down because in Arabic culture, the older brother has a lot of authority over the younger brother. We believe in hierarchy. Sometimes when we disagree, it is what it is. I take his word for it, and I try my best. Some days are harder than others, but in the end, we've made it work.

DN: Is it more difficult to have him as your coach?

AZ: They are more dedicated to me winning than my brother. My brother and my wife are my biggest supporters. They give everything they have to see me win. In terms of time, resources, effort, care, and consideration, nobody gives me more than Firas and my wife, for sure.

DN: You fought in Canada before but never in Montréal. As a Québécois, what does it mean to you?

AZ: It's a real passing-the-torch moment for me. I'm really hoping to represent Canada well, to represent Montréal and Québec. I just really want to have a great performance to rally my country and my province behind me. Hopefully, I can win some fans with this fight, and I'm excited to go out there and show them that on the international level, we belong with the best. There's nobody better to beat in front of them than Aldo.

DN: Aldo is a legend of the UFC. A lot of people are going to watch you fight. How do you train with that pressure?

AZ: It's a very interesting question because, at the end of the day, I was hanging out with my daughter, and they asked me, "So a lot of people are going to be cheering for you?" And I said, "Listen, this time around, I’m fighting a guy who’s a megastar. So a lot more people are going to be cheering for him than for me." But in the end, no one can fight for him. In the end, it's just me and him in the octagon, nobody else. So I don't care how many people love him. I don't care how many people want him to win or how many people expect him to win. In the end, it's only me and him fighting. They can be as loud as they want. They can say whatever they want, trashtalk about me, whatever. However, in the end, he has to fight me. I’m not fighting them, I’m fighting him.

DN: Do you want to send him into retirement?

AZ: I would love it. It'd be great because then my name would get even more recognition. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but it helps me out, too, being the last guy to fight Aldo. Because every time people talk about Aldo, a lot of them are going to ask, "What was his last fight?" In that sense, it's really good for me. But who knows? MMA is so hard to get good at. It takes a long time to get good.

DN: What fights of his have you watched to prepare?

AZ: I’ve watched a lot of them, but his style has changed. I think he's similar to Conor McGregor in the sense that when they both retired and went to boxing, well, Conor didn't retire to go to boxing, but when he did, he lost that MMA distance and tried to fight more like a boxer. I feel like in Aldo’s most recent fights, compared to before he went to boxing, his stance has changed. The strikes he chooses to counter with are different. I’m expecting the Aldo from his more recent fights rather than the old Aldo. I don't know if he's going to go back to low kicks as much as he used to, but I’m still preparing for them just in case he returns to his old style.

DN: You're not a trash talker. You’re going to have a lot of exposure. Do you plan to trash talk him to gain more support?

AZ: No, I don’t need to trash talk. I actually think it would be worse for me. People love this guy so much. When I fought Javid Basharat, his Afghan followers hounded me. They started commenting on my Instagram, trash talking to me and even to my wife on her Instagram. I didn’t appreciate that. Even now, with Aldo, a lot of people are trash talking about me, but they haven’t attacked my wife yet. I don’t need any more hate than I already get for no reason. I don't want anybody talking to my wife. So I don't need to trash talk. I just do my work and let my fight speak for me.