Jon Jones believes Gable Steveson will bounce back.
Steveson was knocked out in 12 seconds by Sean Sharaf at UFC 331 last month, one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Jones, his mentor, told The Schmo that the Olympic gold medalist is in a good place.
Gable’s doing great. Gable’s doing really, really awesome. I believe in Gable. I believe in the man and the person that he is. I’m excited for him to just clear things up moving forward in his life and his personal life.
And as far as the athlete that Gable is, he’s extraordinary. He’s absolutely extraordinary. He deserves good things. He does all the right things. He’s an awesome father and an awesome husband and a great son. I see the way that he treats the people around him, and he deserves success.
The former two-division UFC champion pointed to great fighters who have been knocked out, including Georges St-Pierre’s loss to Matt Serra. He also named one change he wants in Steveson’s camp.
He’s in the right head space. He’s right back to training. I feel like, as a team, we need to add a lot more sparring, and we have our little things that we can work on as a team, but he’s in great hands.
He has great mentors and a great team around him, and we believe he is going to pull back in an amazing way.
Steveson is now 4-1 in MMA and 1-1 in the UFC. He drew criticism for leaving the Octagon before Sharaf’s hand was raised. Jones later took responsibility, saying it was his decision to take Steveson straight to the back to make sure he was OK.
