Aiemann Zahabi Finally Feels 'Settled'

“I don’t want to talk about them because I don’t want people to say I’m making excuses just in case something happens, so I’ll talk about them after the fight.”

Having known each other for a number of years, I pressed for more, but the veteran wouldn’t budge, sticking to his stance on addressing whatever has kept him on the shelf since dispatching Rodriguez well over a year ago under wraps until after his fight with Turcios.

What he would talk about, however, is how this feels like the moment where everything is finally in place for him to start making a real run towards the top of the 135-pound weight class.

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“This is the first time I have nothing else going on,” said Zahabi, a deep laugh chasing his words.

During the course of his UFC career, the TriStar Gym representative has trained and coached fellow fighters, gotten married, welcomed twins, and bought a house, which he did in the weeks leading up his bout with Rodriguez, unbeknownst to his older brother and head coach, Firas.

“I won the fight and I hadn’t told Firas,” he said with a chuckle. “We get back to the hotel and I’m like, ‘I just bought a house two weeks ago,’ and he was like, ‘Are you crazy?! You’ve been house shopping?! Do you know how much stress that is?!’

“I’m finally in a place where everything in my life is in order to where I can do it fully. I’m not begging for sponsors or handouts or help from a million people; I finally have everything in order to be able to punch out a few fights in a year.

“My life is finally settled. My life is good. I have everything that I need to give everything to fighting, so fighting is my No. 1 priority.”

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In addition to having everything in his life outside of the Octagon squared away and at a place where he can commit all his attention to pursuing his craft inside the UFC cage, Zahabi also feels like having gone through the bout with Rodriguez and earned the result he did was a major turning point for him when it comes to dealing with adversity, discovering who he is as a fighter, and doing away with the uncontrollable worries that can often cloud a person’s mind.

“Honestly, it was my proudest win ever,” said the 34-year-old, who carries an 8-2 record into Saturday’s showdown with Turcios. “Not because of the knockout, but because I was coming off two losses in a row and had everybody against me. It was a mental obstacle that I had to overcome, and I’m happy I did because now, whenever my career does end, I can say that I’m tough and I’ve come back from adversity.

“My last fight, I really discovered who I was as a fighter and what my style is, what my strengths are, and who I want to be inside the Octagon, and I’ve built on that this last year.  It ended up coming down to the mental side of things. There are going to be a million things that go right in there, and a million things that go wrong, but the one thing is that I can’t fear the outcome.

“You can win in so many ways and you can lose in so many ways, but why would I put any effort, thought, time into (worrying about) the outcome when all I can do is deal with what I have under control?” he added. “I know it sounds super-cheesy and everybody says it, but it’s about believing it, not knowing it.”