{"id":404461,"date":"2026-01-10T16:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404461\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T16:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:11:07","slug":"dana-white-pumps-the-brakes-on-gable-stevesons-ufc-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/404461\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White Pumps The Brakes On Gable Steveson\u2019s UFC Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Gable Steveson might be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/412716\/joe-rogan-believes-gable-steveson-is-already-an-elite-heavyweight-that-kind-of-speed-is-bananas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">one of the best heavyweight prospects<\/a> to ever enter the world of MMA, but Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO, Dana White, needs to first see the former Olympic gold medalist compete inside the Octagon before crowing him the next best thing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In case you didn\u2019t know, Steveson is gearing up for a likely transition into UFC later this year. The renowned wrestling superstar is already 2-0 in his professional MMA career and with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/391360\/coach-jon-jones-promises-championship-gold-for-gable-steveson-i-found-my-guy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">help of UFC legend<\/a>, Jon Jones, is expected to build on that record in 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Steveson has been so <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/regional-mma-news-results\/405606\/highlights-gable-steveson-crushes-kevin-hein-in-just-24-seconds-at-apfc-21\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">impressive over just two fights<\/a> that UFC color commentator, Joe Rogan, already thinks the Olympic medalist is an elite heavyweight. In fact, Rogan thinks Steveson is a top 5 UFC heavyweight right now despite never competing inside the Octagon. Those may be lofty expectations, but Steveson has \u201ccrazy\u201d speed and \u201celite\u201d wrestling to be able to live up to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">White, who will likely bring Steveson in to compete on the Contender Series in 2026 to earn a UFC contract, believes the former wrestling star has what it takes to be one of the best. However, until Steveson actually steps inside of the Octagon and fights UFC-caliber competition White isn\u2019t fully buying into the hype.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Check it out below and let us know if you agree!<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cYou don\u2019t know until we find out. You can speculate all you want, but you don\u2019t know until you get him in there,\u201d said White during a recent interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fNDPOF9LKgM&amp;t=26s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spinnin Backfist<\/a>. \u201cNo matter where you came from it\u2019s hard to come to the UFC. Everybody looks human when they come here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gable Steveson might be one of the best heavyweight prospects to ever enter the world of MMA, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396],"class_list":{"0":"post-404461","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-ufc-mma-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404461","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=404461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}