Gable Steveson believes it would be an incredible opportunity to make his UFC debut at the White House, and the Olympic gold medalist believes he\u2019d be a perfect fit for the event.<\/p>\n
After picking up a quick stoppage win in his MMA debut at LFA 217, Steveson\u2019s next step in his fighting career will be in the Dirty Boxing ring, as he faces Bellator vet Billy Swanson in the main event of DBX 4 on Oct. 30 in Nashville.<\/p>\n
Most would believe the UFC already has its eye on Steveson, and the idea of debuting at UFC White House hits Steveson right in the feels.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, that\u2019d be incredible,\u2019 Steveson told MMA Fighting. \u201cI try not to think too big, but sometimes it\u2019s just big moments come and you can\u2019t deny them, and I think having an Olympic champion, an American person, a guy that\u2019s going to go out there and represent the White House on the biggest stage possible, it\u2019s me. And I think it could be really nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that you even asked me, it is cool. It sent a chill on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, another name that has been on the top of people\u2019s minds to compete on the card is former two-division world champion Jon Jones, who just so happens to be a teammate and coach of Steveson. \u201cBones\u201d called it a career earlier this year, but once President Donald Trump threw out the idea of having an event on the White House lawn to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States, Jones immediately changed course and got back in the UFC\u2019s drug-testing pool.<\/p>\n
Following Alex Pereira regaining the light heavyweight championship with an 80-second finish of Magomed Ankalaev in their rematch at UFC 320, \u201cPoatan\u201d declared his interest in facing Jones at the historic event. Steveson loves this idea, and to be able to share the card with Jones would be a life-changing experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think having a Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira live-in-the-flesh main event, Jon will be ready because I know he will, and he\u2019ll be with me,\u201d Steveson said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll make sure resting is good, we\u2019ll make sure everything else is good, and he\u2019ll take care of the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think in my terms, man, fantastic opportunity. To have me, being younger, saying that you can be on the same card \u2014 and not just any card, a White House card, that is a once in a lifetime [event] \u2014 with Jon Jones being the main event against Alex Pereira. I couldn\u2019t even fathom. \u2026 It\u2019s insane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steveson expects to compete for LFA again following his Dirty Boxing debut, and would be fine competing multiple times before the UFC comes calling.<\/p>\n
As of now, Steveson says his next MMA bout isn\u2019t on the books, but if he had his druthers, he\u2019d return to action just a couple of weeks after his DBX 4 main event bout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just so focused on Oct. 30 that I don\u2019t even know what\u2019s gonna happen after,\u201d Steveson explained. \u201cBut if I could give you some insight on what may happen after it\u2019s I\u2019m going right back to MMA and getting where I need to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t have [my MMA return] booked, but I do have a time frame of mind. I would like to be as active as possible, probably once a month, so I would think in the middle of November.<\/p>\n
\u201c[I want to be] as active as possible, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gable Steveson believes it would be an incredible opportunity to make his UFC debut at the White House,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-215336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}