Merab Dvalishvili is proving why Ray Longo is the most underrated coach in UFC history

With his 12th consecutive win over Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, Merab Dvalishvili accomplished a lot. He broke George St. Pierre's record for most takedowns landed in the Octagon while extending the longest win streak in UFC bantamweight history with his second straight victory as a 2-1 underdog.

For Dvalishvili, making history has become a norm in his tumultuous UFC career. After starting off with a 0-2 record in the promotion, The Machine has not lost a fight since April 2018. While many fans cannot comprehend his approach, his biggest asset has always been in his corner.

For years, Ray Longo, the head coach of Longo and Weidman MMA and the Serra-Longo Fight Team, has been the mastermind behind Dvalishvili's sustained success. He is the one who found Dvalishvili in New York and turned a 21-year-old Georgian construction worker into The Machine that fans know and love.

Dvalishvili is far from the first champion whom Longo has coached. Matt Serra, who eventually joined forces with his coach to create the Serra-Longo Fight Team, shocked the world at UFC 69 by knocking out St. Pierre to win the UFC welterweight title. To this day, Serra's first-round knockout of St. Pierre is still widely recognized as the biggest upset in MMA history.

Longo also guided the championship-winning careers of Chris Weidman and Aljamain Sterling, both of whom also fought their way to a belt as betting underdogs. That has been the story of Longo's fighters. None of them were ever supposed to win the belt. Some of them were not even supposed to fight for them. Yet, each of his four champions — the four fighters who put his gym on the map — proved to be more than just lightning in a bottle.

Save for Serra, who eventually relinquished the belt back to St. Pierre, each of Longo's champions went on to carve out careers equal to some of the best to ever walk into the Octagon. Weidman's three title defenses are still the third-most in UFC history, while Sterling still holds the record for most wins in UFC bantamweight history. Dvalishvili's story has just begun, but he is already just a few wins away from cementing himself as the best 135-pound fighter of all time, an accomplishment that seemed impossible two fights into his UFC career.

Serra, Weidman and Sterling all had uniquely impressive UFC careers, but it is Dvalishvili whose run perfectly encapsulates the greatness of Longo. Apart from arguably Belal Muhammad, no singular fighter has ever had a tougher road to a UFC title fight than Dvalishvili did, who had to win 10 straight fights and consecutively defeat three former champions to earn his shot. Even when he did, he was set up to lose to promotional golden boy Sean O'Malley at Noche UFC 306, only to dominate nearly every minute of the fight to claim his throne.

But when fans and analysts identify the top MMA gyms in the world, Longo's stomping grounds are often excluded. Teams like American Top Team, Kill Cliff FC, Chute Boxe and others are frequently mentioned, but the Serra-Longo Fight Team tends to get left out.

Unlike the aforementioned large-scale teams and their correlating coaches, Longo has worked solely with New York-based fighters throughout his career. Serra, Weidman and Sterling were all born and raised in the area, while Dvalishvili moved to New York before beginning his career. That says nothing about the dozens of other fighters who were built in Longo's system, including Al Iaquinta, Matt Frevola, Charlie Campbell, and countless others.

As long as Longo continues to guide the best young prospects from the greater New York area, he will continue to evolve the sport one fighter at a time. He is, and will always be, one of the most under-appreciated figures in mixed martial arts history.