Gable Steveson, a Tokyo Olympic wrestling gold medalist, signed with UFC, becoming the latest Olympic medalist to join the mixed martial arts promotion.
Steveson, who is 3-0 as an MMA fighter after making his lower-level debut in September, said he will debut with UFC in July in Las Vegas.
“I’m ready,” Steveson told UFC. “The butterflies, the jitters, all part of the game, and I’m ready to take that big step to the UFC and do what I need to do.”
In the Tokyo Olympic super heavyweight (275-pound) final, Steveson beat reigning world champion Geno Petriashvili of Georgia with a takedown in the final second to become, at the time, the second-youngest U.S. wrestling gold medalist in history at age 21.
He joined Bruce Baumgartner, a star of the 1980s and ‘90s, as the lone U.S. men to win an Olympic title in the weight class.
After Tokyo, Steveson repeated as NCAA heavyweight champion and NCAA Wrestler of the Year for the University of Minnesota in 2022 before retiring from wrestling.
He unretired from wrestling in 2023 — between WWE stints — and qualified for that year’s world championships but withdrew less than two weeks before the event.
Then in spring 2024, he signed with the Buffalo Bills as a defensive lineman in a bid to become the 16th Olympic gold medalist to play in an NFL regular season game. He was cut before the start of the regular season.
He returned to wrestling, using a fifth year at Minnesota, and was 2025 NCAA heavyweight runner-up to Wyatt Hendrickson of Oklahoma State.
Later in 2025, Steveson won his MMA debut with Legacy Fighting Alliance in September. He also won matches in November and February.
Olympic medalists to win UFC titles include Ronda Rousey (bronze in judo in 2008), Kayla Harrison (gold in judo in 2012 and 2016) and Henry Cejudo (gold in wrestling in 2008).
