{"id":585168,"date":"2026-04-04T14:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585168\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T14:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T14:45:09","slug":"gable-steveson-shuts-down-ufc-hall-of-famer-over-jon-jones-criticism-hes-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/585168\/","title":{"rendered":"Gable Steveson Shuts Down UFC Hall of Famer Over Jon Jones Criticism: ‘He’s Perfect’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson<\/a> has defended Jon Jones<\/a>, calling the UFC legend “perfect” and backing their working relationship.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old dismissed Daniel Cormier<\/a>‘s concerns about having Jon Jones as his coach. The 2020 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling is 3-0 in his MMA career, with all three wins coming via first-round knockout under Jones’ guidance.<\/p>\n

Cormier recently questioned whether Jones could provide the focused coaching Steveson needs to reach his potential. Speaking on The Ariel Helwani Show<\/a>, the former two-division UFC champion expressed doubts about his former rival’s ability to serve as a primary coach.<\/p>\n

I believe he has a real chance to be a world champion,” Cormier said. “I believe there are some factors that may slow down [that trajectory] \u2014 his coach is Jon Jones. As long as he lets the other coaches coach him, yes. But if Jon is actually coaching him, I don’t know.<\/p>\n

\"Ariel<\/p>\n

Ariel Helwani & Daniel Cormier REUNION! DC, Boxing Jon Jones, Arman vs Dana, Paramount+ Era Starts<\/p>\n

Gable Steveson Praises Jones’ Mentorship<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old wrestler responded to the criticism by offering a strong defense of Jones’ coaching abilities. Steveson emphasized the value of learning from someone widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters in UFC history.<\/p>\n

My relationship with him is everything,” Steveson told MMA Fighting<\/a>. “I don’t think he does [get enough credit]. I 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

Steveson described Jones as the ideal coach for his transition into mixed martial arts. <\/p>\n

He’s the best fighter of all-time leading a new guy to maybe be that person also. It’s a one of a kind opportunity and I’m all ears. I’m a sponge. Just soaking in all the knowledge that I can,” he said.<\/p>\n

Jones’ Coaching Approach<\/p>\n

The Olympic champion directly addressed concerns about Jones’ commitment and professionalism as a coach. Steveson painted a picture of a dedicated mentor who consistently shows up prepared to work.<\/p>\n

He’s perfect. He’s everything you want in a coach. He shows up on time. He’s ready to work. He’s ready to work overtime, also,” Steveson said. “So the narrative of him being not there, his ego’s there \u2014 it’s non-existent with him.<\/p>\n

Steveson is set to make his Real American Freestyle debut<\/a> at the wrestling organization\u2019s ninth event on May 30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson has defended Jon Jones, calling the UFC legend “perfect” and backing their working…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,797,786,61781,11877,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-585168","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-daniel-cormier","11":"tag-fighting","12":"tag-gable-steveson","13":"tag-jon-jones","14":"tag-mma","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585168","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=585168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}