Newly crowned Olympic wrestling champion Gable Steveson is leaving his options open when it comes to his future in MMA.
Steveson defeated Georgian Geno Petriashvili to win the gold medal in the 125 kilograms division of the men’s freestyle competition at this year’s Olympic games. The 21-year old Portage, Indiana native won the match in buzzer-beating fashion, in arguably one of the greatest victories in American amateur wrestling history. He spoke with MMAFighting’s Damon Martin about winning the gold medal and said the following about his potential future in combat sports and signing with the UFC.
“What is next for Gable Steveson is, I’m really not sure. I’m open for all options,” Steveson said. “Like I said, I’m going to go explore every single option I can. I’m going to go put my name on every single desk and go out there and make sure that the Gable Steveson name is well known and it’s going to influence the next culture that comes up. There’s a lot of places to go, I don’t know what’s next for me. WWE, UFC, football, go back to school, who knows? But at the end of the day, the best decision will come to my family and who knows when it may come. Most definitely, I’m a fight fan. Who wouldn’t want to be the baddest man on the planet? Who wouldn’t want to hold that UFC championship belt? I’m holding the gold medal and I’m the baddest wrestler on the planet. Why wouldn’t I want to go out there and be the baddest UFC heavyweight champion?”
Although he seems interested in the possibility of one day becoming the UFC heavyweight champion, Steveson made it clear he does plan on meeting with the WWE and exploring the professional wrestling avenue as well.
“Most definitely I’m going to explore the WWE,” he said. “Vince McMahon is a great dude, Triple H is a great person also. For me not to explore WWE would be fairly stupid on my part. But I’m going to go out there and me and Triple H are going to have face-to-face talks, me and Vince will, me and Dana will, me and Joe Rogan will and I’m going to go out there, and like I said explore. A lot of people have faith in me and that’s cool to see. We’re going to explore. We’re going to take our time. We’re going to pick the right option for me whether it’s MMA or anything else.”
WHAT JUST HAPPENED! —@GableSteveson grabs the GOLD as time expires. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/yqMc3wbXsu
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2021
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