Gable Steveson is one of the most hyped prospects to ever compete in MMA. And for good reason.
The 25-year-old heavyweight is an athletic freak who became the youngest American to ever capture a gold medal in wrestling when he won at the 2020 Olympic Games. He’s also a two-time NCAA champion. Thus far in his MMA career, Steveson is 2-0 with a pair of knockouts, which barely took over two minutes combined, and he also scored a vicious 15-second knockout in his Dirty Boxing debut.
While he doesn’t have the overall fight experience as the vast majority of heavyweights, UFC legend Matt Brown argues that Steveson’s unreal athleticism likely gets him wins over anybody on the roster — including reigning champion Tom Aspinall.
“He could be champion literally today,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “If he went in and fought Tom Aspinall or Ciryl Gane or whoever is the champion, I don’t think there’s a chance anyone has against him. Obviously, you always have a chance in MMA, but I think he could be a champion tomorrow.
“I’d pick him to beat the champion today, keeping it real. I wouldn’t put my money against it if they fought tomorrow. I think Aspinall’s best chance would probably be submission.”
Now there’s no chance Steveson is actually going to get a title fight against somebody like Aspinall this early in his career, but Brown has that much belief in the talent possessed by the former University of Minnesota wrestler.
As he continues making waves on the regional scene before inevitably joining the UFC roster, Steveson has counted on former heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to serve as his coach and mentor. Jones, widely considered the greatest fighter of all time, often touts Steveson as the next big thing with hopes that he could surpass some legends of the sport when it comes time to start setting records.
That said, former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub expressed concerns over Steveson counting on Jones as a role model, especially given his outside-the-cage issues. While he was almost untouchable during his fights, Jones’ career was marred by arrests, positive drug tests, and other issues that potentially prevented him from building a résumé that would be impossible to topple.
Brown understands why Schaub is worried about Steveson following in Jones’ footsteps because he believes right now, more than anything, the heavyweight prospect needs guidance and someone to lead by example.
“Outside the ring, that’s pretty obvious,” Brown said. “Jon’s not the guy to mentor you in life. He doesn’t need to be anybody’s life coach. But even with that said, the other part I would question, and Gable’s been around enough hard workers that this may not even come into question, but there’s always been questions about how hard Jon Jones worked. I’m sure he puts in the time. I’m sure that he’s not a slacker. I’m sure he’s in the gym often enough, but is he doing those extra reps at the end? The reps that he can’t do when he’s exhausted, and he can’t do another rep, does he go ahead and do another rep?
“I’m sure he works hard, but when you’re genetically gifted to be able to work hard, is it really working hard? You need to be able to push yourself past the limits of what you’re capable of. I would question if Jon has always done that or not.”
That’s why Brown feels like Steveson actually needs somebody to guide his career in the right direction because there’s no telling how far he could go just based on his talent alone.
“Probably the most important thing that Gable needs is the life coaching,” Brown said. “How’s he going to deal with fame? It’s going to be a different level of fame when you’re UFC champion than gold medalist, which is a pretty hefty level of fame. But he’s going to be on the next level of fame because he’ll be touted as the gold medalist and now heavyweight champion. The stars are the limit for this guy.”
Right now, Steveson hasn’t booked his third professional fight, but that news could come at any time as he’s stayed active ever since deciding to forgo another Olympic run to instead make his transition to MMA.
Whether it’s now or later, Brown anticipates that Steveson is going to conquer the world, and he expects his championship prediction to come true whenever he finally gets the chance to fight for the title.
“With a guy like this, the constraint is getting the fights,” Brown explained. “I would pick him to win tomorrow. The only constraint is his own patience, how long does he want to wait, and will the UFC give him that opportunity? That’s the only constraint. If they gave it to him in 2026, I think he wins it in 2026. Put him against Gane tomorrow. I could see the betting lines favoring Aspinall; that’s understandable. I hope that fight happens next month so I can put all my money on Gable Steveson and get the underdog win.
“I don’t know how you beat this guy. Daniel Cormier, he could mess with a Gable Steveson. You have to be that level of athlete. It’s so, so rare you get that level of athlete in the heavyweight division.”
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