Move over, Edwin Diaz. Another New York athlete has staked his claim to Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet’s “Narco.”
“This is my song now, man. I love it,” lifelong Mets fan and streaking UFC lightweight Matt Frevola, who like that his favorite team’s closer walks out to get the job done to the bouncy electronic jam, recently told The Post. “… I think it’s just such a great fight song. Whenever I hear it, I just get bullfighter vibes, and it just dials me in, and the crowd loves it. I love it. I’m definitely sticking with it.”
Dialed in is right.
Frevola (11-3-1, seven finishes), a Huntington, Long Island native, entered the octagon in each of his two most recent bouts to the horn-infused track — at Madison Square Garden and Prudential Center — and there’s no arguing with the results: a pair of first-round knockouts.
The sounds of Timmy Trumpet will echo through the Garden again next month when Frevola, the most prominent locally tied fighter on the UFC 295 bout lineup, takes on Benoit Saint-Denis in a potential Fight of the Night contender on Nov. 11.
The 33-year-old actually carries a three-fight win streak into the matchup — all first-round (T)KOs — which has earned him a reputation as a bit of a knockout artist.
Believe it or not, the three finishes with his hands come after securing just a single knockout in his previous 12 pro contests.
“A lot of people just think I’ve got power in my hands, but they forget that my wrestling, my jiu-jitsu is what really got me to the dance,” says Frevola, who also has three wins via submission including the fight he won on Dana White’s Contender Series to earn his UFC contract.
Frevola credits coach Ray Longo, who has helped guide three Long Island native to UFC championships over the last 16 years, for unlocking the power in his striking arsenal that had yet to be proved as a fight-ending weapon.
“Ray Longo really wanted me to dial in on my boxing, and I’ve been just doing whatever he says, training with such high-level training partners with the Serra-Longo Fight Team, and my striking has just gotten to that next level,” Frevola explains. “I always had the power, but now, I’m really dialing in and able to land the shots.”
Remarkably, both of Frevola’s finishes in front of the New York Metro Area fans came about when the former Harborfields High School (Greenlawn) athlete dropped his opponents — Ottman Azaitar and Drew Dober — while moving backwards and with his back nearly at the fence.
The power right hook was the weapon of choice against both previously unbeaten Azaitar at the Garden and UFC lightweight KO-record-holder Dober at the Rock.
“The most deadly strikers are able to land the shots whether you’re moving forward or moving backwards,” Frevola says. “Again, [with] Ray Longo, we do movement drills every day. Just being able to be deadly everything, always being able to land the shots.
“I always want to be in control of the octagon,” continues Frevola, who in both fights frequently found himself moving along the inner perimeter of the octagon before landing the crushing, fight-clinching blows. “But against a lot of these aggressive opponents, I have to use my movement, use my feints and pick my shots when the openings come.”
Frevola, who after eight years in the U.S. Army Reserves recently received an honorable discharge as a captain, has another all-action foe in front of him in France’s Saint-Denis (12-1, 12 finishes), who carries a four-fight win streak into their matchup.
Unlike Frevola, Saint-Denis is not listed among the top 15 contenders at 155 pounds in the UFC’s own rankings.
However, websites such as Tapology and Fight Matrix with deep global rankings have the pair separated by just a few places, highlighting this matchup as one between a pair of rising talents who might break into the top 10 within a year.
Frevola doesn’t get too hung up on the rankings, and the fact that he accepted a fight against an unranked wrecking ball in Saint-Denis is proof.
“It’s some people just picking whoever they think [is better],” says Frevola of the UFC rankings. “But I know that Benoit Saint-Denis is one of the best fighters in the division, and he’s got a lot of momentum, and he’s got a lot of hype right now. And those are the kinds of things that excite me. I want fights that really excite me, and this is one of them.”
While he swears to be “completely focused on Benoit now,” Frevola has lobbied heavily for a fight against heavily hyped English lightweight Paddy Pimblett for some time now.
Pimblett is scheduled to face former UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson — who followed a 12-fight win streak with a crushing six-fight skid — in December.
Of course, Frevola will have his eye on that bout, and he wouldn’t mind at all if the brash Liverpool native got the win — and for good reason.
“Hopefully Paddy wins,” Frevola says, “and that fight [between him and I] can get made down the road.”