UFC President Dana White will meet with Olympic-gold medallist Gable Steveson to discuss his possible future in the UFC.
Steveson has been the talk of the fight world since he tweeted his interest in transitioning from freestyle wrestling to MMA earlier this month. The virtual hand wave at Dana White came just days after Gable won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in the men’s 125KG freestyle wrestling category.
So highly regarded are the 21-year-old’s MMA prospects that Ben Askren, a former Olympic freestyle wrestler, believes Steveson can become UFC heavyweight champ after only 18 months of training. And it’s a prediction that Steveson himself shares.
Gable Steveson Set To Meet With Dana White in Las Vegas
Given his stellar wrestling credentials, Steveson naturally has multiple suitors vying for his signature.
Bellator President Scott Coker has said he’s reached out to Gable’s management team. And the reigning Pan American Continental wrestling champ recently met with CEO of the WWE, Vince McMahon.
But perhaps the man Steveson is most interested in speaking to is Dana White—and the feeling is mutual for the UFC president. In an interview with TMZ, White says the UFC has always watched Olympic wrestling closely, and that he’s looking forward to catching up with Steveson shortly.
“Well obviously wrestling is a massive base in the UFC, and a lot of great wrestlers, including [from the] Olympics have come and done big things here, so I’m looking at all the guys. A few years ago they were looking to get rid of wrestling as an Olympic sport, and me and the UFC here battled hard to make sure that didn’t happen.
“So we’re very supportive of Olympic wrestling and yeah, he’ll [Steveson] be in town this weekend, so I think we’re going to hook up and talk … you know, obviously there’s a lot of work for him to do before he could make it to the UFC, but we’ll see what happens,” said White.
What do you think? Will we see Gable Steveson make his UFC debut in the near future?
