Firas Zahabi: Georges St-Pierre is not planning on retirement any time soon

Is Georges St-Pierre planning on retiring after his UFC 167 bout with Johny Hendricks?

Not so fast, says his trainer.

Firas Zahabi was quoted by the Canadian French language outlet TVA Sports last week as hinting the end of the road might be near for the UFC's longtime welterweight champion. In a translated quote, the head of Montreal's Tri Star gym said "George told me if the occasion should retire after this fight. If he still has the motivation for another training camp, it will continue. Otherwise, he will take his retirement."

But according to Ariel Helwani on Wednesday's edition of UFC Tonight, Zahabi says his words were taken out of context.

Zahabi said that St-Pierre, who has been champion since April, 2008, has always maintained that when he hits the point that he loses his full motivation in his training camps, he will retire from the sport.

But Zahabi said that such is not the case now, as St-Pierre prepares to meet Hendricks on Nov. 16 in Las Vegas. While St-Pierre's previous two training camps, for title defenses against Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz, weren't so great because he was coming off a knee injury, the Hendricks camp has been his best in a long time.

"GSP has always that said if he loses the drive to really go through with a great training camp and push himself, then he will retire," Zahabi said through Helwani. "GSP's camp has been his best in years, last two not so great, because he was so rusty because of the knee injury."