Issue 112
March 2014
It’s the home of the giant killers and Ray Longo is the man at the helm. But what makes the veteran coach tick, and why are he and his fighters so close? FO found out in Long Island
LEADING MAN
Ray Longo
Coach to UFC Champions
The architect of destruction, Ray Longo has taken homegrown New York City talent to scale the highest peak in mixed martial arts on more than one occasion. And following his recent success with UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, he was catapulted into consideration for ‘Coach of the Year’ at Fighters Only’s Sixth Annual World MMA Awards.
Longo, who was born and bred in Long Island, New York, was introduced to martial arts and fight sports thanks to Bruce Lee’s martial arts philosophy and course of study, jeet kune do, after he spent time with Lee’s prize pupil, Dan Inosanto.
“Dan would come to do seminars and I would train with him,” Longo recalls to FO. “I wasn’t a direct student, though. These guys really had a complete game. There was striking, grappling, Thai boxing and more. It wasn’t as sophisticated as Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but they did incorporate some Gene LeBell wrestling with some shootwrestling, and just watching submissions on the floor at that time was a big deal.
“Jeet kune do always incorporated this stuff so I never really felt like I had to make a big transition to MMA. When it came for guys to look for stand-up training partners I was just in the right place at the right time.”
Longo has been the man behind two of the biggest upsets in Octagon history, both of which led to UFC president Dana White wrapping gold around the waists of Longo’s fighters after the decision was read out.
His fondest memory remains his orchestration of Matt Serra’s huge upset of welterweight kingpin Georges St Pierre in Houston, April 2007. “It was UFC 69 and Matt was the biggest underdog; he was such a big underdog that you couldn’t even get through an interview without people laughing at you,” says Longo.
“It was the same night Diego Sanchez fought Josh Koscheck, and as we were heading into the arena Sanchez’s mariachi band started playing the theme song to Mission Impossible! It was the craziest thing I remember from that time. That was a classic.
“I do believe the athletic commission actually fined those guys. We were in the corner and you could hear the dun, dun dun… dun, dun, dun, and I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me. Holy s**t!’
“I turned to Matt and said, ‘You gotta knock this guy the f**k out. We are not getting a decision, I can guarantee you that!’”
Thankfully Serra heeded his advice and in doing so changed Longo’s life forever. And another life-changing moment for the Long Island trainer came on the day a then-unkown wrestler called Chris Weidman reached out to him for advice.
“He tried out for the Olympics in 2008 but he fell short and when he got back he called me up and asked what I thought. I told him from what I saw I thought he could be a champion,” Longo states.
“I have to admit, that conversation, I’d never had that conversation with anybody. I was just so sure of him after watching him in the gym for just a short period of time. He said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ That was the conversation.”
However, that wasn’t the most important conversation Longo had concerning the current champ’s early career. Weidman’s wife had a few words for the veteran coach concerning her husband’s safety under Ray’s watch.
He says: “A few weeks later his grandmother had died. His wife, Marivi, who is an absolute sweetheart, grabbed me and said, ‘If anything happens to this guy I am going to kill you!’ This was at the wake and I was thinking you aren’t in the happiest mood there to begin with and to have her come over and say that… I was never, ever under this much pressure in my life!
“Every fight from that point on, I don’t know if I was more worried about Chris losing or his wife killing me! Her timing was perfect and it definitely shook me up a bit.”
Not surprisingly, the sense of pride and fulfillment Longo feels in guiding two local guys to be UFC champions holds no bounds. “Think about it,” he beams. “If you are really close with a couple of your friends and you both get to the top of your field, on that given day you are the best you can possibly be. No one in the world is better than you.
“Imagine how it feels when you can share that with two guys you really like, that you are really close to. Me and Matt weren’t just friends when he was fighting. The relationship still continues and I’m sure it will be the same way with Chris.
“These two kids from Long Island, they let me be a part of their dream. That is what I like doing. I’m not looking for attention. I like watching these guys fulfill their dreams. There is nothing better than that, believe me. All the accolades, I never really thought of it until after UFC 162. It’s a really nice thing. These guys are nice enough to believe in me and trust me and I believe in Chris. That is the biggest thing.”
With Team Longo, the bond goes much deeper than just that of a teacher and his student. They are more of a fighting family, as evidenced by the team’s training schedule. “Even leading up to the St Pierre fight, Matt had just opened up a school,” explains Longo. “I remember Joe Rogan saying, ‘He just opened up another school. How is Matt going to find the time?’ What he doesn’t know is that this is a team of friends.
“I would meet Matt at 9pm on a Sunday if we needed to. It wasn’t a 9–5 deal. That’s what Chris meant by the scheduling. Chris took a fight on short notice and we had to do workouts and he had to bring his daughter to the gym, so I would bring my daughter to watch his daughter so we could work out. That’s why you see results with this team.
“All of the personalities, all of the people; we are all together. Our families are friends, we celebrate holidays together, birthdays together and I think that makes a huge difference. We are going to do whatever we have to do to get the training in. It could be Sunday at nine in the morning or nine at night. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it takes to get the ‘W’.”
