Elite wrestler Gable Steveson has just announced that he will be pursuing MMA after he faces Craig Jones in the headline superfight at CJI 2. He’s already had a pretty crazy career that has spanned multiple different sports, but at the age of just 25 he still has time to reach the top of the MMA world too. Steveson has been wrestling since he could walk and won a gold medal in the Olympics in 2020, before transitioning to a WWE career. He spent a few years developing his professional wrestling skills before being released by the promotion, and then went on to sign for NFL team the Buffalo Bills for a few months.
Now Steveson is preparing for his first ever submission grappling match and it literally couldn’t be on a bigger stage as a member of the CJI 2 lineup. It was actually during the promotional work for that match that the topic of a potential MMA career came up, and he was clearly excited by the idea:
“I would love to accomplish being in the UFC and not just being in the UFC, just dominating and being a star and holding that belt.”
Obviously his incredible wrestling skills alone would make him a formidable opponent and his recent focus on Jiu-Jitsu only adds to that, but he’s also been working on his striking too:
“A lot of myself is MMA based, but also I still stay in the wrestling room at the Minnesota Gopher Room. And I go to a lot of Jiu-Jitsu classes also. So I’m thankful to have the guys that have been helping to prepare me for this match and to prepare for future MMA matches.”
He’s had some incredible training partners over the years of course and even recently took part in one of Jon Jones’ training camps alongside Gordon Ryan, so he’s already been exposed to the very best that MMA and Jiu-Jitsu has to offer. Whether he’s able to turn that into success on the mat or in the cage remains to be seen of course, and fans will have to wait just a few more weeks to find out the first at least.
The full interview with Gable Steveson where he mentions competing in MMA after facing Craig Jones at CJI 2 was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of FloGrappling:
