There were a lot of high expectations around Gable Steveson when he announced that he was going to be making the transition to MMA, and he passed his first test with flying colours by dominating in his debut at LFA 217 on September 12th, 2025. Steveson isn’t just any wrestling expert of course, he’s one of the top talents that the United States has produced in recent years and he won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to prove it. Steveson was also a two-time NCAA Division I champion and a five-time All-American before that too, so he has a long history of success in combat sports.
He’s been flirting with the idea of becoming a professional MMA fighter for quite a few years now, but he has previously chosen to focus on both his WWE and NFL careers instead. Neither of those opportunities panned out in the end, as Steveson was released by the WWE after his first televised match and released by the Buffalo Bills before the start of the regular season. He’s clearly been preparing for his MMA debut very thoroughly though, and if his first performance in the cage is anything to go by then this might have been the best idea all along.
He was up against Braden Peterson at LFA 217 and he came out with MMA legend Jon Jones in his corner, after working with him during the training camp for his recent UFC fights. He quickly used his grappling advantage as well, hitting a clean single-leg to take Peterson down. Steveson worked patiently from there and started landing some hard elbows while keeping him controlled, but it didn’t take long for him to sense an opening. He picked up the pace and postured up to rain down ground and pound, prompting the referee to intervene and wave off the fight after just 98 seconds of action in the very first round.
The full LFA 217 event replay can be found on UFC Fight Pass, and footage of Gable Steveson winning his MMA debut was shared by them to social media:
