A two-time NCAA Division I national champion and four-time Big Ten champion who won a gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in freestyle wrestling, Stevenson originally joined World Wrestling Entertainment. After that didn’t work out, the University of Minnesota product, who had never even played high school football, signed with Buffalo in May 2024 as a defensive lineman.
“I think about a couple of things, one of which is I’m a big believer in wrestlers, and what skills you develop in wrestling and how that can translate into being a really good football player, especially among the offensive and defensive line groups,” then-Bills head coach Sean McDermott said when he met Steveson. “Having never played football — not even in high school — it’s a little different. It’s a little unique, so there’s more work to be done in terms of starting from scratch, from zero and then trying to build every day.”
Steveson’s first football game was actually the Bills’ 2024 season opener, a game in which he had a tackle and a QB pressure on 14 snaps. His NFL career total would equal three preseason games, three tackles and two QB hits.
However, he left behind. One that is transferred to his new head trainer, Greg Jackson, one of the most respected trainers in MMA history, who has trained previous UFC champions such as Rashad Evans, Carlos Condit, Holly Holm, George St-Pierre and Jon Jones.
“I think if you’re a fan, you need to tune in to see what this guy can do,” Jackson said on UFC Embedded. I mean he already won Olympic gold in heavyweight wrestling. It’s so hard to do, I can’t even tell you. where is the air What can he achieve? What can he do? I’m telling you right now, I’ve worked with most of the best fighters to ever play the game and his athleticism is second to none. The way he thinks about things, how smart he is, how trained. You’ve got to tune in now to see where the ceiling is for this guy, because he could be redefining what this sport is.”
Jones, whose brother Chandler and late brother Arthur both played in the NFL, is heavily involved in Steveson’s career, which takes its next — and biggest — step Saturday.
The odds were high that Steveson would make the Bills. However, when Steveson (3-0) takes on Ellison (5-2) on Saturday, the 26-year-old will do so as a heavy favorite.
Steveson isn’t shying away from hype or pressure, embracing it as perhaps a generational athlete who has a gold medal in wrestling and once decided to try out as an NFL player with no prior experience. In his three previous MMA bouts, Steveson has won in the first round by stoppage, after totaling just 5 minutes and 52 seconds of cage time.
“It’s going to be the show I want it to be,” he said. “It’s going to be the Gable Steveson show. When I walk out there, I hope everybody wants to tune in and want to see a gritty win and a dominant performance from me.”
At this point, he may still have more playing time with the Bills on his resume than fighting time. Eventually, that will change. For now, though, one of the greatest American wrestlers to ever step on the mat is ready to take the UFC by storm — roughly two years after he was preparing for a training camp in Western New York.
“I’ve been in big shows my whole life,” Steveson said. “It’s just another day for me.”