{"id":602055,"date":"2026-04-12T12:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T12:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602055\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T12:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T12:45:09","slug":"olympic-champion-signs-with-ufc-ahead-of-international-fight-week-debut-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/602055\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic champion signs with UFC ahead of International Fight Week debut – MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

An undated picture of\u00a0US Olympic gold medalist wrestler Gable Steveson.\u00a0\u2014 Instagram\/\u00a0gable<\/p>\n

US Olympic gold medalist wrestler Gable Steveson has signed with the UFC, officials confirmed during Saturday\u2019s UFC 327 broadcast in Miami.<\/p>\n

The heavyweight prospect is expected to make his promotional debut at the organisation\u2019s annual International Fight Week card in July in Las Vegas, marking a major step in his transition to mixed martial arts. His signing adds another elite wrestler to the UFC\u2019s heavyweight division.<\/p>\n

Steveson, 25, remains unbeaten at 3-0 in professional MMA and is widely regarded as one of the sport\u2019s most promising heavyweight talents.<\/p>\n

A two-time NCAA Division I national champion at the University of Minnesota, he has quickly adapted to the cage. He is currently training alongside MMA legend Jon Jones. <\/p>\n

In February, Steveson recorded a first-round knockout victory over veteran Hugo Lezama in Mexico, extending his streak of early finishes to three.<\/p>\n

Steveson famously won Olympic gold at the Tokyo 2020 Games in dramatic fashion, overturning an 8-5 deficit in the final seconds of his 125kg final against Georgia\u2019s Geno Petriashvili to secure a remarkable 10-8 victory.<\/p>\n

Prior to his February bout, Steveson had expressed hopes of fighting on the UFC\u2019s planned White House card on 14 June alongside Jon Jones. <\/p>\n

However, Jones was not booked for the event, and his future in mixed martial arts remains uncertain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An undated picture of\u00a0US Olympic gold medalist wrestler Gable Steveson.\u00a0\u2014 Instagram\/\u00a0gable US Olympic gold medalist wrestler Gable Steveson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,61781,293355,785,242404,85,277705,787,205749],"class_list":{"0":"post-602055","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-gable-steveson","12":"tag-international-fight-week","13":"tag-mma","14":"tag-olympic-champion","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-steveson","17":"tag-ufc","18":"tag-ufc-327"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602055","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=602055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}