Gable Steveson is an Olympic Gold medalist, but is now eyeing up an MMA career.
Steveson won gold representing the USA in freestyle wrestling at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but nothing got him as motivated as his recent encounter with UFC supremo Jon Jones.
A video showing the UFC heavyweight champion inches from knocking out Steveson went viral at the beginning of October.
The footage showed Jones toying with Steveson at Albuquerque-based gym Jackson’s MMA Association ahead of UFC 309 where Jones made Stipe Miocic look a shadow of his former self.
In the video, Jones threw a quick combo in the direction of Steveson before grabbing his leg as if to attempt a takedown.
Steveson then slipped the attempted takedown and immediately went for one himself, which nearly ended in disaster.
As the 24-year-old leant down in the direction of Jones, the heavyweight champion instinctively went for a flying knee.
But luckily for Steveson, the quick reaction time of Jones allowed him to pull away right at the last second and avoid any injuries.
“I’ve dipped and dabbled in MMA for a while now and after being in that camp with Jon Jones, that definitely put a major spark in me to go out there and do MMA,” Steveson told Ariel Helwani.
“[I’m] not sure about the promotion yet but Jon definitely lit a fire under me and was like: ‘Hey I think you should go back to wrestling, I think you should try MMA, we got a great team here in Albuquerque if you want to join us’.
“It was just fascinating how I got into something so quick and when I put on the gloves everything felt like home base.
“And with the wrestling, with the boxing work, with the jiu-jitsu I feel like I could be very good really quick.”
Steveson has also dipped and dabbled in other sports.
After a very successful career in wrestling, Steveson signed with the WWE in 2021, but didn’t last long as he was released by the company in May.
He was turned down by NFL side Buffalo Bills, as well as the team’s practice squad after trying out for the off-season.
“I mean taking a knee is crazy. Everyone knows taking a knee is crazy, especially from Jon Jones.
“So I mean we were just wrestling around and I went to take a shot and just the reaction time that he had, especially at the age that he is, is just fascinating.
“I’ve never seen it from any other guy. I wrestled Brock Lesnar a few years ago and Jon was just so much different and when I took that shot and took that knee I was like: ‘Oh this is what it feels like to get hit’.
“And obviously it hurts, we know that, but just my first real hit is getting knee’d in the face and it goes on ESPN which is kind of funny.”
Steveson went on to discuss his departure from WWE, saying it didn’t quite work out for him as he ‘tried to go back to wrestle’.
He also confirmed there was no bad blood with Triple H or Stephanie McMahon after speaking with them back stage at UFC 309.
But as for who is tougher: Lesnar or Jones, Steveson answered with a diplomatic ‘no comment’.