Brad Tavares Met His Childhood Hero Ray Sefo – and It Changed Everything
Brad Tavares, a middleweight fixture in the UFC for over a decade, carries a strong source of motivation in his training regimen. It arrives each time he steps onto the mat at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, where Ray Sefo, a New Zealand kickboxing legend, continues to train and coach despite being in his fifties.
Brad Tavares Reflects on Training with Ray Sefo
In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Tavares revealed how meeting and sparring with Sefo transformed his perspective on the sport and what it means to be a complete combat athlete.
The reverence Tavares holds for Sefo stems not just from Sefo’s accolades, but from a cultural touchstone of Tavares’ own childhood. “I used to literally play the K-1 video game, and me and one of my best friends, Russell, used to pick Ray Sefo versus Ray Sefo,” Tavares said on the podcast.
The K-1 World Grand Prix, held annually in Japan, represented the pinnacle of heavyweight kickboxing. In Tavares’ formative years, selecting Sefo for head-to-head matchups in the video game was a common occurrence.
When Tavares first encountered Sefo in person at a sparring session at the old Tapout gym in Las Vegas, the experience lived up to his expectations. “He walked in there and I was just like, ‘Damn, that’s Ray Sefo.’ And all I could think to myself was, ‘Oh man, I want to spar with him and he’s probably going to knock me out, but dude, like what an honor, right, to get knocked out by Ray Sefo?'”
What followed the initial sparring session, however, proved far more valuable than Tavares anticipated. Rather than experiencing the knockout power Sefo is historically known for, Tavares discovered a different quality entirely: unparalleled control.
“Bro, literally from that day till this very day, is the most controlled person who also has the capability though, and the power and the know-how to put anybody’s lights out, but the most controlled training partner I have ever had and met,” Tavares explained.
Sefo compiled a record that positioned him as one of the greatest heavyweight kickboxers never to win the K-1 World Grand Prix. He made eight appearances in the Grand Prix tournament, an extraordinary feat of consistency in an event known for eliminating competitors quickly. Along the way, he defeated world champions Jerome Le Banner, Peter Aerts, Stefan Leko, Mike Bernardo, and Mark Hunt, a list of opponents that reads as a who’s who of elite heavyweight striking.
Sefo’s journey began in New Zealand, where he eventually earned six Muay Thai world titles before transitioning to K-1. His competitive career spanned multiple decades and multiple formats. Muay Thai, kickboxing, and mixed martial arts.
Brad Tavares himself represents a different breed of UFC longevity. The American middleweight, who trains out of Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas and regularly returns to Hawaii to work with HQ MMA, holds one of the longest tenures in UFC history. As of early 2026, Tavares stands tied with former middleweight champion Michael Bisping at sixteen UFC victories.
Sefo, who now serves as president of the PFL, maintains an active presence at the gym despite his age and executive responsibilities. Tavares noted this commitment: “For how long he’s been doing it, his age, all the crap he got going on, he got kids, he’s still at the gym every single day.”
