He’s a 6-foot-1, 265-pound Olympic champion wrestler who’s strong as an ox and quick as a hiccup. He spent a training camp with the Buffalo Bills and had other NFL teams kicking his tires even though he’d never played football. And he’s been labeled by UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones to be a future champ in mixed martial arts should he opt for that career.
Gable Steveson explains Gophers return; UFC’s Jon Jones sees his future in mixed martial arts
Gophers heavyweight Gable Steveson said Monday that he does indeed have sights on competing for another gold medal at the 2028 Olympics.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 18, 2024 at 10:51PM
The combat sports world is Gable Steveson’s oyster, and he’s going back to his roots in amateur wrestling, where he first made a name for himself as a dominant prep grappler at Apple Valley High School before winning a pair of NCAA championships with the Gophers and a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Last week, coach Brandon Eggum announced that Steveson, 24, will use his final season of eligibility — available through a waiver for an Olympic redshirt year — to compete with the Gophers. Steveson, who has an 85-2 career collegiate record and a 52-match winning streak, will seek his third NCAA heavyweight championship. On Monday, Steveson and Eggum held a news conference to discuss the move.
“My goal has always been to just be as dominant as possible, and especially this year, I just want to go out there and put out a good product once again,” Steveson said. “… Minnesota fans like seeing Gable wrestle. So, if you’ve got the year left, why not do it again?”
Steveson will make his season debut in Sunday’s 1 p.m. dual meet against Campbell at Maturi Pavilion. His likely opponent is no slouch. Campbell heavyweight Taye Ghadiali finished eighth in the 2024 NCAA tournament and on Saturday defeated No. 3-ranked Nick Feldman of Ohio State in the NWCA All-Star Classic.
Eggum, who coached Steveson during his run to the Olympic gold that was capped by a dramatic comeback to beat Georgia’s Geno Petriashvili, sees a better, more mature version of Steveson.
“This guy is not just the best in the country, but the best in the world,” Eggum said.
WWE to NFL
During the 2½ years since he won his second NCAA title in 2022, Steveson was under contract with WWE but was released in May. He never became popular with pro wrestling fans and had only one televised match. Monday, he said he had no regrets from his time with WWE.
“The WWE just wasn’t the right time,” he said. “I had a lot of competitive edge in me, and they knew that. And it was just not the time for it. So, maybe one day, if the stars align, it’ll be a great opportunity to do it again.”
That competitive edge led the wrestler to football, and when Bills coach Sean McDermott — a national champion prep wrestler himself — showed interest, Steveson found himself in Buffalo’s training camp. He played in all three preseason games, making three tackles and getting two quarterback hits before being cut.
Olympics in 2028, MMA are options
The timing wasn’t right for Steveson to compete in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, but the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are on his radar.
“I would love to go to L.A. in 2028,” he said. “It’d be really good, especially with it being in America, having America’s best show up and win at the highest level.”
Steveson also could be tugged in another direction: mixed martial arts.
In preparing for his heavyweight title fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 on Saturday, Jones went through some practice sessions with Steveson and came away impressed.
“He’s gonna be scary, he’s gonna be very scary when he decides to do MMA,” Jones said in his post-fight news conference. “He knows how to make men appear very weak, me being one of them. … It’s not a matter of if he’ll become a UFC champion, it’s when he’ll be a UFC champion.”
Said Steveson of UFC: “It does interest me. It interests me a lot. … Seeing that [title] belt live in person, it definitely gave me that fire back.”
MMA will wait as Steveson finishes one last season with the Gophers. He wants to make it memorable.
“I want people to see domination. You can win a match 3-2 or you can win a match 15-0. I would rather have the people see 15-0 because that means you might show up again next week, and now I got a fan in you for life.”
Brennan Rigsby, a transfer from Oregon, has a 40-inch vertical and can shoot from long range. The Gophers are counting on him now with Mike Mitchell Jr., injured.
