{"id":706025,"date":"2026-05-31T09:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706025\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T09:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T09:35:07","slug":"steveson-dominates-romanov-in-raf-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/706025\/","title":{"rendered":"Steveson Dominates Romanov In RAF Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gable Steveson continued his preparation for a UFC debut with a commanding performance in his RAF debut on Friday, shutting out UFC and PFL veteran Alexandr Romanov by technical fall to win 10-0 ahead of his Octagon appearance at UFC 329 on July 11.<\/p>\n

Steveson’s athleticism was immediately apparent. A takedown and turn in the opening period put him up 4-0 before the action was briefly halted when Romanov appeared to suffer an arm injury. Romanov continued, but Steveson was 5-0 at the end of the first period and showed no intention of easing off. A step-out point and a further takedown extended the lead in the second before Steveson rolled and executed a gutwrench to complete a 10-0 technical fall victory.<\/p>\n

The Olympic gold medalist, Pan-American Games champion, and two-time NCAA national champion from the University of Minnesota brings credentials that have not been seen in a UFC heavyweight<\/a> prospect in some time.<\/p>\n

Romanov, a veteran of both the UFC and PFL, is now 0-2 in RAF competition having previously lost to Mason Parris. The step up in opposition Steveson will face at UFC 329 \u2014 Elisha Ellison carries a 5-2 record with a 100 percent finish rate \u2014 is a different challenge, but the manner of this performance will do little to calm nerves in the Ellison camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling amazing. You questioned if I could still wrestle? You think Gable can\u2019t wrestle? Whoever wants it can get it. I came here to be a wrestler. I\u2019m a wrestler at heart but I\u2019m a fighter now. \u201cI have three matches in RAF that I really want. Next up I would like Abdulrashid Sadulaev and there\u2019s a guy from Iran named Amir Hossein Zare, he\u2019s the best heavyweight right now, we\u2019ll go for my third match. If you want it, I\u2019m here,\u201d Stevenson said <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gable Steveson continued his preparation for a UFC debut with a commanding performance in his RAF debut on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-706025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706025","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=706025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}