As an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and an athletic freak for a heavyweight, Gable Steveson could have worked with virtually anybody to get him ready for his transition into MMA.<\/p>\n
But the 25-year-old prospect lucked into partnering with Jon Jones prior to his showdown against Stipe Miocic when the former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion was seeking physically imposing grapplers to get ready for the fight. Steveson was more than happy to help but that training camp forged a bond with Jones and it didn\u2019t take long for the University of Minnesota standout to realize he found the perfect coach and mentor to help him reach his goals in fighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy relationship with him is everything,\u201d Steveson said about Jones when speaking with MMA Fighting. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of crazy the way I fight, he\u2019s kind of created the way how I want to fight in the future. The dude\u2019s a legend but he\u2019s also my close friend now. He\u2019s my close friend, he\u2019s my coach, he\u2019s everything in between.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be with someone like that and for someone to guide you along the way with that kind of stature is crazy. I take everything he says, I take it and I soak it all in and I try do the best I can to make sure he\u2019s proud and make sure all the other coaches are proud. Right now, everybody\u2019s smiling ear to ear and we\u2019re going to keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steveson is quick to heap praise on his other coaches as well including Brandon Gibson and Greg Jackson, who were also in his corner alongside Jones when he moved to 3-0 in his career with a first-round stoppage victory at WFL 3.<\/p>\n
But Jones being considered arguably the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time brings a different level of attention to that partnership, especially considering how much he\u2019s talked about Steveson as the future of the sport.<\/p>\n
In fact, Jones didn\u2019t blink when he said that Steveson would likely end up in the UFC sooner than later and his path to becoming champion wouldn\u2019t take all that long.<\/p>\n
While he\u2019s not making any declarations about conquering the UFC heavyweight division in short order, Steveson appreciates that Jones has that much faith in him already.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot coming from him,\u201d Steveson said. \u201cThat\u2019s my brother. He knows best. He sees me first hand. He sees what I can do. He sees my work mentality. He sees everything that I can do from top to bottom. I would believe his word but I wouldn\u2019t believe his word to the fullest extent because you\u2019ve got to believe my word, also. You\u2019ve got to believe in my work ethic and my work ethic is pure. So with those two combined, you can believe both of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Jones has become an integral part of Steveson\u2019s evolution, there are also critics who say that the two-time NCAA champion might be making a mistake working with him. The concern usually stems from Jones\u2019 outside-the-cage activities where he\u2019s dealt with numerous arrests and drug testing issues that cost him wins during his career.<\/p>\n
But Steveson says Jones is a consummate professional as both his friend and coach and he couldn\u2019t ask for anybody better to guide his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he does [get enough credit],\u201d Steveson said. \u201cI think a lot of people overshadow [his abilities] with a lot of things with just fighting and a lot of the things he has going on. His mentorship is the best thing that we can have.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the best fighter of all-time leading a new guy to maybe be that person also. It\u2019s a one of a kind opportunity and I\u2019m all ears. I\u2019m a sponge. Just soaking in all the knowledge that I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Jones by his side and the rest of his coaching staff putting in countless hours to get him ready for the next stage of his career, Steveson is confident he\u2019s got the right people around him to accomplish whatever he wants in the future.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s a fast track to a UFC title but no matter what\u2019s next, Steveson plans on keeping Jones by his side through it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s perfect. He\u2019s everything you want in a coach,\u201d Steveson said. \u201cHe shows up on time. He\u2019s ready to work. He\u2019s ready to work overtime, also. So the narrative of him being not there, his ego\u2019s there \u2014 it\u2019s non-existent with him. He\u2019s ready to show up and do his thing and make sure we are happy and make sure we have a guy that can lead us along the way with coaches like Brandon Gibson and Greg Jackson and Jon Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a perfect squad. We\u2019re just trying to make it happen one day at a time and just have the best of best times.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and an athletic freak for a heavyweight, Gable Steveson could have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,44,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-581517","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-mma","12":"tag-news","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\/581517","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=581517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}