Jon Jones Responds as Calls Mount for Gable Steveson to Leave NCAA Amid UFC Rumors

Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson has been on a wild ride in the past few years. After testing the waters in professional wrestling, the 24-year-old decided to make his return to NCAA wrestling. However, Steveson seems to have garnered fans’ attention recently, claiming that his participation is ‘unfair’ to other athletes because he’s already an established Olympic winner. But in these cries from the fans, UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones shared a message regarding Steveson and his future combat sports.

In 2021, Gable Steveson made waves in the pro wrestling industry after signing with the WWE as another coming of WWE legend Kurt Angle, who also won an Olympic gold medal. However, the 24-year-old didn’t seem to fit the mold and in 2024, the promotion released him after a brief stint in WWE’s developmental brand, NXT.

Following his stint there, Steveson announced that he was all in on NCAA wrestling because he still wanted to be a part of the collegiate level, and despite fans fuming over this, Jon Jones appears to be siding with him. While there have been rumors about a possible UFC move for Gable Steveson after his WWE exit, Jon Jones responded to these rumors and the fans’ dissatisfaction with Steveson’s return to wrestling with a social media post.

Having known him personally and even retaining with the Olympic gold medalist, ‘Bones’ simply shared a story on Instagram, indicating his support for the decision Gable Steveson has taken for himself. The story by Jon Jones was a promotional post from the 24-year-old, where he was seen saying, “Wrestling raised me.”

Meanwhile, Gable Steveson also weighed in on a potential career in the UFC, and guess what? It was somewhat positive. Hence, fans might want to take a sigh of relief after listening to what he had to say about that career. Let’s take a look.

Will Gable Steveson come to the UFC?

When Gable Steveson decided to join Jon Jones in training last year, he claimed to have been motivated by the UFC champion. The 24-year-old claimed that ‘Bones’ was so impressed that he even urged him to consider making the move to MMA and even invited him to train with his team under coach Greg Jackson. Steveson claimed that he’s not sure where he’d start his mixed martial arts journey, but he does see him doing that in the future, and if he ends up in the UFC, he will become the second Olympic gold medalist to compete in the Las Vegas-based promotion.

“Not sure of the promotion yet, but Jon definitely lit a fire under me and was like, ‘Hey, I think you should go back to wrestling, I think you should try MMA. We got a great team here in Albuquerque if you wanna join us,” Gable Steveson told Ariel Helwani. “With the wrestling, with the boxing work, with the jiu-jitsu, I feel like I could be very good really quick.”

Well, for the moment, whether fans like it or not, Gable Steveson is still focused on continuing to wrestle. But to know what lies ahead, we’ll have to wait and see. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below.