Montreal — The scorecards may have been controversial for some, but there’s no question that Aiemann Zahabi came away with the biggest win of his career at Saturday’s UFC 315 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
In a competitive fight with UFC Hall of Famer Jose Aldo that had to be shifted up a weight class when Aldo struggled to make the bantamweight limit, Zahabi came away with a unanimous decision win, finishing the fight strong and nearly putting Aldo away.
Shades of Aldo vs. Mark Hominick, only this time, the Canadian saw his hand raised.
“It was an incredible feeling, I felt like a million dollars after the fight, I felt really good,” Zahabi (13-2) said following the event, speaking backstage with media outlets including Cageside Press during the post-fight press conference. “I felt like we won it, I felt like I finished the fight super strong.”
When it came to Aldo requiring a shift from bantamweight to featherweight, news that didn’t break until Friday’s official weigh-in, Zahabi’s legendary teammate and mentor Georges St-Pierre gave him some supportive words.
“GSP told me that when he missed weight by eight pounds, the first thing Georges told me about it was, ‘that’s going to be so good for the story. That’s going to be incredible for the story. Not only are you fighting a legend in the sport, you’re fighting him and you weighed eight pounds less than him. You had to move up in weight for him,'” recalled Zahabi. “Then getting rocked in the fight adds to the story, adds to the adversity. I overcame it all, so I feel incredible right now.”
Rocked in the fight he was, as Zahabi suggested he’d suffered a concussion in the bout. And he had high praise for Aldo, who announced his second retirement following the difficult loss. “No one should ever forget how good of a fighter he is. He gave me the fight of my life tonight, and I think he helped propel me.”
“It’s almost like, I could be the King of Montreal now after that performance. People are going to respect my heart. I told everyone I was going to fight with my whole heart in this fight, and I think I delivered.”
Aiemann Zahabi now sits on a six-fight win streak, and while he’s struggled to stay active in the past, he did fight twice last year. He now plans to head to the UFC Performance Institute to get checked out, the aforementioned concussion concern clearly in mind. After that, “maybe September would be good,” he suggested for a return date.
Watch the full UFC 315 post-fight press conference appearance by Aiemann Zahabi above.
