Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson isn\u2019t concerned about rising contender and former (?) training partner Josh Hokit.<\/p>\n
Both men train in Albuquerque, New Mexico and are associated with the famed Jackson-Wink MMA Academy. The full extent of their relationship<\/a> is unclear, but Steveson admitted a couple days ago that they have shared the mats many times. He also expressed his belief that Hokit was heading to 205-pounds<\/a> and thus a matchup between the two was unlikely to be an issue.<\/p>\n A couple days later, Steveson appears a bit more annoying at talking about \u201cThe Incredible Hok.\u201d He is the debuting bluechip prospect, after all! While speaking with Jon-Bernard Kairouz, Steveson made it very clear that he doesn\u2019t consider Hokit on his level.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never seen him in a bracket that I was in,\u201d Steveson said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been aware of Josh Hokit, because he did wrestle Heavyweight. He went from 197 to Heavyweight and I never saw him in a bracket. I never met him. I never wrestled him. I never even thought about the thought of, \u2018Man, what would it be like to wrestle Josh Hokit?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIf Bo Nickel can go out there and pin you ..? You think Bo Nickal can pin me? Bo Nickal cannot pin me. You know what I would do to Bo Nickal in a wrestling match? I would beat Bo Nickal 10-0 in under a minute \u2026 I\u2019m so excited for Josh Hokit to move down to 205. I\u2019m so excited for him to go to 205 and have a great time at 205 and achieve everything he can at 205. Because if he says a heavyweight, I think there\u2019s gonna come a time where someone like myself or someone else will disrupt him before that. I really believe Josh should go to 205. When you mention wrestling, he\u2019s not on the same level as me. When you mention fighting, it\u2019s the same thing.\u201c<\/p>\n For the record, Hokit posted on X<\/a> just last night that he fully intends to stay at Heavyweight, capture gold, and attained Baddest-Man-on-the-Planet status. Hokit is a lot closer to UFC gold than Steveson at the moment, but it\u2019s not at all impossible that the two are crossing paths in a year or so. Add a bit of bad blood \u2014 I cannot imagine Hokit reacting kindly to this statement \u2014 and this could have the makings of a major rivalry.<\/p>\n Of course, Steveson has to do his part and live up to the hype. He\u2019s the biggest betting favorite in UFC history<\/a> tonight at UFC 329<\/a> versus Elisha Ellison, and a quick finish in his UFC debut will help push him up the ladder towards top-flight competition like \u201cThe Incredible Hok.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson isn\u2019t concerned about rising contender and former (?) training partner Josh Hokit. Both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,318251,1396],"class_list":["post-794084","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-329","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794084","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=794084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}