Gable Steveson had a bit of an inauspicious WWE run to say the least, but there is a certain openness to go back to the world of sports entertainment down the line at some point. The Olympic gold medalist wrestler has been making waves in the world of mixed martial arts and the Dirty Boxing Championship, as many see Steveson as someone who will invariably be signed to the UFC.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience to the show’s titular figure about what led to his departure from WWE during the first half of 2024, Gable Steveson said,
“I just had a competitive drive that I needed to get out. And so, you know, when you have that gap is there, you can’t do both, right? And I was trying to bridge both. And I wasn’t giving my 100% to the business. And if I’m not going to give 100% to the business, then you might as well X me out because it’s already over with… I would love to go back in the future. I would love to do a sport and go out there and dominate and then maybe after [I become] the UFC heavyweight champ… maybe after a couple times.”
Gable Steveson hones his skills under Jon Jones’ tutelage
Gable Steveson has the UFC heavyweight title in his crosshairs, and who better to prepare him for that pursuit than someone interwoven within that UFC title lineage? During his JRE chat, Steveson mentioned that Jon ‘Bones’ Jones DMed him on social media and gave over his number, which began a connection with the two combat sports athletes.
The two have since got in work with one another as Steveson provided some wrestling-specific insights for Jones’ preparations to defend his UFC crown against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309.
Speaking to how the work with the former two-division UFC champ inspired a re-direction of focus from WWE and NFL exploits withthe Buffalo Bills to an MMA directional path, Steveson stated [via MMA Fighting],
“I needed somebody to kind of engrave it in me. With the wrestling, I had my father, I had the University if Minnesota, I had good people around me kind of say, ‘Hey, this is how we’re going to do it, this is where you need to go, and this is how it’s going to happen.”
“And when I saw Jon, I saw that drive, like, ‘Damn, this guy’s winning and people get close but they can’t get past him. Why is that?’ So I really sat back and watched his mental, how he went about a lot of things, how he talked to people, how he walked, how he punched, how he looked when he was in the pocket, when he needed to get out, when he rested his hands. And I saw everything. I was like, ‘Man, this guy’s a superstar — a super, super star,’ and we all knew that, and people knew that for a long time.
“But I really saw him and I was like, ‘Damn, I want to be that,’ and that’s what really flipped my switch right there.”
