Matt "The Steamrolla" Frevola, UFC Lightweight Fighter

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And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today. Matt, I appreciate the time. Congrats on the knockout victory in the first round. How you been? Oh, of course, man.

Thanks for having me. I've been good, you know. Honestly, it's a blessing getting out of a fight with, like, no injuries. You know, that knockout felt like hitting a home run in baseball. You know, it's just a clean, clean hit.

You know, no injuries. And I'm right back to the gym helping my team. So when you're walking out and you're a New Yorker, you're from Long Island and you're in Madison Square Garden, you hear everyone chanting, steamroller! What's going through your body? Like, what are you feeling, especially when you come out to Timmy Trumpets, some Narcos, a little tribute to Edwin Diaz and the Mets?

Like, what are you thinking? And I'm feeling the energy. I'm harnessing that energy and I'm focusing that energy. You know, I know I prepare the right way for every fight.

I'm 100 percent prepared. And, you know, I envisioned that moment so many times and it was it was unreal. Just, you know, the Trumpets hit at the perfect at the perfect time. And then I got into that cage and I was dialed in and I was focused. How did you process the knockout? Because you're right, you walked right into the octagon and you walked out very quickly. You had that celebration where you jump on top of the cage and deliver that knockout in the first round. Reflect on a little bit and take me through the actual knockout.

Oh, yeah. You know, like I said, it was like hitting a clean home run in baseball. And then I saw I saw his body drop and then I kept I hit him with a couple more shots and the ref stopped the fight. And then, you know, I finally got to jump up on top of the cage. That was the first time I jumped on the UFC cage. You know, I only really jump on the cages when I get those first round knockouts because I got so much energy. Still, it's it's it's there's no better feeling than that.

And especially on the perfect stage, Madison Square Garden, it was unreal. Now, I've been to Mustang Harry's a bunch, you know, going to Ranger games, going to big events at Madison Square Garden. I started following you on Twitter right after the fight. And I see you're partying it up afterwards at Mustang Harry's with all your friends. That has to be the perfect scene.

We're right after a fight. Yeah, you have some people in attendance. You get to see them. But to have a contingency of that many people must have been awesome. Oh, it was it was unreal walking into that bar, seeing all my my friends, my family. You know, we've been on a journey together.

You know, I've been fighting all over the country, all over the world. And I'm blessed to have these friends and family who travel the world with me and support me. And we, you know, we turn it into a vacation. You know, this one, everyone was happy. They didn't have to buy any plane tickets. Right.

And I just take the subway and take the Long Island Railroad right into the city. And we had a great time. It was unreal.

Talking to the steamroller, Matt Fravola on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. How did you get involved in the UFC? How did you get involved in living this lifestyle? Yeah, I mean, I guess you could say I didn't choose the fight life. The fight life chose me. You know, I started I started just a Long Island wrestler. You know, I was a long I wrestled at Harbor Fields in Huntington. And I was a good wrestler. I was never a great wrestler.

Never made it to states. I got beat up in Suffolk counties. But but, you know, that was the start. And then I found Brazilian jiu jitsu. I found Matt Sarah and I started training Brazilian jiu jitsu and choking people and smitten people. And then I fell in love with Muay Thai. And, you know, and then I fell in love with boxing. And the thing that comes the most natural to me is is putting it all together in a mixed martial arts fight.

And I think that's what I do best. You know, I'm not the best wrestler. I'm not the best boxer. But you put me in the cage and mixed martial arts. Let me use both of them. Let me let me use all all my weapons. And that's what I'm best at.

So it's now we're at the top of the game. When did you develop that confidence? Just wondering in this journey when you're trying to figure out on how far you could really go with this. And, you know, you always you always got to have your confidence. You know, I've been beat before I got into the UFC as a 6 and 0 pro and then I was a 9 and 0 amateur. I got into the UFC and my UFC debut, I got knocked out.

And after that, you know, I started really assessing, assessing everything and like being more calculated. And and, you know, I got back to my training and my training, my hard work breeds my confidence. I know I put in the work. I know I'm ready to go out there and fight. And on my best day, I could beat anybody in the world.

And you got to believe that if you want to make it to the top. What's your normal training like? Like take me through a normal routine day of training for Matt Fravola. Well, there's definitely a difference between, you know, a fight camp and then just training. You know, like when I'm in a fight camp, I'm like 10 weeks out from a fight.

And that's that's, you know, 100 percent focus. But, you know, you got to enjoy every aspect of of the fight life of the process. I love getting into camp and grinding for 10 weeks, eating perfectly in the best shape of my life, peaking on the perfect time.

But then I also love, you know, after a fight. Now I'm going back to the gym, I'm coaching my teammates and I'm helping my guys. I'm still training. I'm still having fun.

And I'm kind of work. I'm developing new weapons. And now I want to fight next in March. So, you know, I got the rest of this year to really develop new weapons, have fun. And then January we get into a fight camp.

January, February, I'm ready to go in March. And, you know, I do all different kinds of training. Brazilian jiu-jitsu. I do Muay Thai. We do MMA class at Longo and Weidman in Garden City. I do jiu-jitsu at Sarah BJJ in Huntington. I do my strength and conditioning at acceleration sports training in Deer Park. I do hot yoga, hot yoga, Carl Place.

You know, I've got I swim at LA Fitness's. I got I got my schedule the same. My first rodeo right after the fight. And I was on the bridge. So I got to oversee everything. And I saw Portnoy was sitting octagon side. Big Cat 2.

When did you realize that they were there? And then you made it clear, hey, I want to fight their guy and Paddy had that come about. Man, I I've always wanted to fight Paddy. I wanted to fight Paddy, you know, for my whole career.

I think that's a great fight. You know, just stylistic wise, you know, we're both well-rounded mixed martial artists. And and then, you know, my my buddy Billy Q, he came up to me. He's like, you know, Portnoy's over here. So then like we went over to cage side and I was just and I support and I kind of just like chirping his hand, like like I'm chirping. I told him I'm coming for his boy. So I'm coming for for Paddy.

And, you know, I'm hoping we get that fight. Are you a stoolie? Because I saw Portnoy tweet out that you are still like, I love Barstool's content.

How about yourself? I love Barstool. I was I was I was a day one student. So I said I used to go to www.barstool.com back when I was in college. And like like back when they were small. And and then as soon as I hear they're getting into the MMA game, I'm buddies with Robbie Fox, too.

Sure. I love all the all the Barstool guys. And then they signed Paddy to a seven million, like a seven figure deal. And I'm like, like, what about the day one stories? You know, you forget about the day one stories. They give this this guy from England seven figures when he just heard of Barstool last week.

And you forget about your Long Island and your Northeast roots. So, you know, Barstool chose their champion. Their champion is Paddy. And, you know, I'm I'm coming for him.

Maybe you want to join up with them. Maybe you'll take that money if they come call on it as well. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Five years from now, where do you think you are? Like, where is Matt Fravola if we're talking five years from now? Five years from now. Five years from now, I will be 37.

I'm getting I'm not a spring chicken anymore. Five years from now, hopefully I'll be retired and have saved enough money fighting to, you know, take care of my family and make other endeavors to live a happy life. What do you think you do after this?

Like, after what do you want to do? I love martial arts. I'll always be involved in martial arts. I want to be that old guy on the mat, like in his gi still being like, let me get a roll with you.

But yeah, yeah, I want to always be involved in martial arts and helping people and helping people through, whether it's martial arts, whether it's, you know, working out at lifting weights or doing yoga, you know, helping, helping them, you know. What was the coolest part about the experience? Like, clearly, the knockout's great. But for you, what's the one thing that's still a few days later, you're just still going back and thinking, well, I can't believe this. And that happened on on Saturday. Man, it's it's such a ride, you know, it's like just like going in there fight week. I went into fight week with my dad, my brother, one of my buddies, Billy Q. And, you know, we were just so focused.

I was cutting weight all week going through the whole process. You know, you see the fight go down so many different ways in my head through my visual visualization and whatnot. And and then it goes and then it goes. And when you do it, it's almost like I've been there.

Like I saw that walk out so many times. I felt, you know, the the canvas under my feet. And and, you know, we went in there, we got it done.

It wasn't how I ever thought it was. And I actually, you know, maybe once or twice I thought maybe I just get a left, you know, a quick punch knockout. But, you know, I was prepared for war and and we got a nice clean knockout. And I'm I'm ready for the next one. You know, it's kind of crazy because that was my first time ever being to a UFC fight. And they bring out so quickly. Then the fights are pretty quick.

And then it's on to the next one. You probably didn't want to leave that octagon, right? When you're the hometown kid, everyone's going nuts. You have the support of the home crowd.

Yeah, it's a great moment to have. But you didn't want to leave that octagon. You wanted to stay there and probably soak it in, right? Oh, no, man, I would have hung out with Joe there. I would watch the rest of the fights cage side with Rogan. How much how much of the fights did you get to watch afterwards? Like once you went to Mustang Harries, were you watching all the fights? Yeah, we got to watch the main card.

I got got over there for the main card, which is nice. But the UFC is a well-oiled machine. You know, they they're the top to the top fight promotion for a reason.

And you could just tell with their events. You know, it's one of the best live event you could go to is a UFC event. That Poirier Chandler fight was really something. That was a great. Oh, that was insane.

That was that was a great fight. Were there guys because you're a little bit older. Were there guys that you kind of looked up to? Or it was like so surreal when you first got into it that you say, OK, like I'm kind of on their level or in the same sport as them. Were there guys for you that you really did admire and learn from, whether it was watching them or just seeing the way that they train?

Yeah. You know, I'm lucky to call them teammates and friends. Now, you know, Chris Weidman just watching Chris, watching Chris Weidman, you know, and then, you know, before that, Matt Serra, you know, and then now Aljamain Sterling. It's unreal what these Long Island fighters do. And I went to Ray Longo. I told Ray Longo, make me the next Long Island champion. He told me that he told me to box more. He told me to move my head and use my jab. And I'm glad I've been boxing because I just box that dude up.

Wrap it up with Matt for Volo. So you talk about having to make weight and all the training. What is the big meal after the fight? Like, what do you kind of pig out on and just go nuts with when you don't have to worry about the weight? Oh man, it's no matter what.

Win, lose or draw. After every fight, I get home and then I've got a Cinelli's pizza waiting for me. Cinelli's in Franklin Square. Yeah. And I get a nice, I got a pepperoni pie and then I get my specialty slice, a vodka grandma with chicken cutlets on there.

Wow. That sounds really good. Well, hey, I really do appreciate the time. One more for you before we let the Steamroller Matt for Volo go. The nickname is great. It's perfect. It rhymes with your last name.

Clearly Steamroller, you're going to roll right through and beat up on everyone. How'd the nickname come about? How'd you zero in on that nickname? That was my, my uncle Dolsey, David Dolan.

Rest in peace. He was a Boston guy and him and my dad were just coming to all my amateur fights and I was just running through people and they're like, Oh, we need it. We need to get him a nickname. He's a Boston guy. He's got the accent. He's like Steamroller for Volo. With the, with his accent and rolled off the tongue, you know, you dropped the ER, you had the a Steamroller for Volo. You know, it rhymes in Italian accent or a Boston accent. So, and he planted the seed and it stuck. And it was great.

That was nothing like hearing that chanted all throughout Madison Square Garden. Really do appreciate you taking some time out of your day today to chat with us and good luck the rest of the way and congratulations once again. Yeah, thanks a lot, man. Nice talking to you.

I really appreciate all the support and all the love that I'm feeling from New York, Long Island and everybody. Is there something really absurd that skeeves you out? Getting a paper cut on my eyeball? A fear you can't shake? I'm going to leak ocular fluid down my cheeks.

It's going to go into my mouth and I will perish. Whatever scares you, I want to talk about it. Join me, Larry Mullins, on my new podcast, Your Weirdest Fears. Listen and subscribe to Your Weirdest Fears on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football, live and on demand, wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.

Football season is here. The new Odyssey app lets you stay connected to your NFL team, your station, your shows. Follow your favorite stations and come back again and again. Get real-time updates on everything you care about.

Miss your show? Jump back to their awesome rewind feature. The Odyssey app is NFL football, live and on demand, wherever you are, whenever you want. And did we mention it's all free? Download the Odyssey app today.