{"id":785794,"date":"2026-07-07T23:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T23:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785794\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T23:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T23:51:09","slug":"gable-steveson-biggest-ufc-betting-favorite-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785794\/","title":{"rendered":"Gable Steveson Biggest UFC Betting Favorite Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA Division I Heavyweight champion Gable Steveson makes his highly anticipated Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut this weekend against Elisha Ellison at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-fight-cards\/444863\/ufc-329-fight-card-start-time-date-location-conor-mcgregor-max-holloway-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC 329<\/a>, which goes down Sat., July 11, 2026, inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">And oddsmakers are expecting a complete destruction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Steveson is now the biggest betting favorite in UFC history, sitting at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-odds\/454169\/ufc-329-odds-gable-steveson-balloons-whopping-2800-betting-favorite-july-11-debut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">-2800 on DraftKings<\/a>. On some other sportsbooks, such as FanDuel, the line has ballooned <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/mma?tab=ufc-prelims\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as high as -4000<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">But do the odds make sense?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Considering Steveson is fighting one of the lowest-ranked fighters on the UFC roster, it is not hard to see why the line is so absurd. Ellison is currently ranked No. 38 out of 40 UFC Heavyweights on Tapology, making this look like a very deliberate showcase fight for Steveson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That said, Steveson is not just any newcomer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">He enters the promotion as one of the most accomplished Heavyweight wrestlers in recent memory, having won Olympic gold and two NCAA Division I national titles before transitioning to mixed martial arts (MMA).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Nevertheless, the former Olympic gold medalist enters the UFC carrying enormous hype after steamrolling through his first three professional MMA appearances. He knocked out Braden Peterson in less than two minutes (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/388817\/impressed-gable-steveson-destroys-outmatched-heavyweight-slug-in-official-mma-debut-lfa-217-video-knockout\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>) in his MMA debut before scoring a 24-second knockout over Kevin Hein later in 2025 (<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\">watch highlights<\/a>). Earlier this year, the 25-year-old scored another stoppage win over Hugo Lezama in Mexico (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/regional-mma-news-results\/423111\/highlights-gable-steveson-shakes-off-wild-wheel-kick-remains-undefeated-with-another-quick-ko\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">So, yeah, the hype is real.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Still, -2800 \u2014 and especially -4000 \u2014 is absolutely insane for any UFC fight, let alone a debut. Steveson is expected to win, expected to dominate and expected to look like the future of the Heavyweight division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic gold medalist and two-time NCAA Division I Heavyweight champion Gable Steveson makes his highly anticipated Ultimate Fighting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,85770,19458],"class_list":["post-785794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-prelims","tag-ufc-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785794","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=785794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}