5 Times MMA coaches were to blame for a fighter's downfall

#2 Rory Macdonald and Firas Zahabi

He was once touted to be Champ and now he’s off the roster

Now we get to the hottest of my HOT TAKES. I believe that Firas Zahabi is a good coach who knows more than I do about MMA. Having said that, I think he ruined Rory Macdonald’s career and here’s why: Firas has often said that with Rory he had to and I’m paraphrasing, “Tame a wildcat”, meaning that he had to rein in Rory’s natural aggressiveness and wildness in fights.

This wildness is obvious if you watch Rory’s fights before he got to Zahabi, including the Carlos Condit fight, which allegedly was the fight that led Rory to Firas. The problem is that Firas went overboard.

He did what a lot of great MMA coaches do, including Eric Del Fiero at Alliance, in that he tried to re-create his most successful fighter (GSP for Firas, Dominick Cruz for Del Fiero) with Rory. At first, it worked great! Rory was on a great run until he fought Robbie Lawler.

Not only did Lawler beat Macdonald twice, he may have altered his career by breaking his whole face during their rematch at UFC 189. The exact kind of damage Firas was trying to keep him from suffering by changing his fighting style.

The question is would a more aggressive reckless Rory have been able to beat Lawler the first time and get a very winnable fight against Johny Hendricks for the UFC title? All I know is Rory Macdonald was hailed as a future Champion and never quite made it. I think it’s fair to ask how much of that blame falls on Firas Zahabi.