Full 'Steam' Ahead: How Matt Frevola reshaped his UFC career
Matt Frevola, right, fights Drew Dober in their lightweight bout during UFC Fight Night at the Prudential Center on May 6. Credit: Anna Sergeeva/Anna Sergeeva
Before Matt Frevola embarked on his run of three consecutive first-round knockout victories, there was the other one.
The one that came with no second paycheck for winning. The one that had him on his back. The one that put his knockout loss in seven seconds into the UFC lightweight record book and found its way into a permanent spot on Terrance McKinney’s highlight reel.
It’s also the one that set about change for Huntington’s Frevola.
“I was ready to be done with all this after that fight,” Frevola told Newsday about the night of June 12, 2021. “I was questioning everything I did.”
That’s when Ray Longo stepped in.
“After that, I go ‘Dude, I’m not watching you go out like that. Let me just get in there and see if I can make a difference,’” the longtime trainer said.
“Longo wanted me to box,” Frevola said. “So we started boxing. And then they kept feeding me these undefeated contenders and I kept knocking them out. And now we're here.”
Here is UFC 295 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden. Frevola carries momentum and confidence into the lightweight fight on the pay-per-view main card, as does his opponent, Benoit Saint Denis. Frevola has three straight first-round knockouts. Saint Denis (12-1, 1 no contest) has four straight finishes, two by submission and two by knockout.
That doesn’t seem to phase the “SteamRolla.”
“These are the fights I live for,” the 33-year-old Serra-Longo fighter said. “Nobody wants to fight this guy. You could say he’s the boogey man of the division. He’s got a lot hype right now. I want to say he’s the No. 1 fighter in Europe right now. He’s got a country behind him. He’s an ex-special forces French military veteran. These are the fights that excite me.”
Frevola’s newfound confidence began in the boxing class Longo resurrected after a long time on the shelf. He cuts the octagon inside Longo & Weidman MMA in Garden City into fourths. In each quadrant stand two gloved fighters. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. No time to back away and recalibrate the mind.
“The less space you have, the quicker your reflexes have to be,” Longo said. “If you can't move, you have to really react quick. When you can move, you have more time to think and you can get out of the way and reset. But now when you're right in there, I think it's way better for the reflexes, spatial relationship, awareness. Good attributes you build from that.”
Frevola agreed.
“Building that awareness, seeing punches coming at you, trusting in your defense, now I’m used to it,” the former Army Reservist said. “I think it's really showing in my fights. I’m more comfortable. I've got more awareness.”
Knockout wins over Genaro Valdez, Ottman Azaitar and Drew Dober in a span of 17 months would suggest Frevola’s analysis is on point as much as his strikes.
“Just going in there and beating a guy like Drew Dober gives me all the confidence in the world,” said Frevola (11-3-1). “He's never been knocked out in the UFC until he fought me. Just getting that win that way, being able to finish him in the first round, I could do that to anybody and I'm really believing that now.”
Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.
