Who is Gable Steveson fighting? UFC skipping Top 15 for Octagon debut

Gable Steveson won’t be thrown into the deep end until Dana White knows he can swim.

“CM Punk fought here, we’ll find somebody,” White said at the UFC Winnipeg press conference. “I don’t know if we go after a Top 15 guy. The UFC jitters are real. I don’t care how you’ve competed or where or what you’ve done. When you come here, it’s a different level. Our matchmakers are the best in the business. We’ll figure him out and get him the right fight. When I say that, I mean at what we think his level is, and what we think he’s capable of.”

The last thing UFC wants to do is risk the long-term potential of Steveson with hotshot matchmaking against devastating heavyweights like No. 13-ranked Tallison Teixeira or No. 15-ranked Shamil Gaziev. Yes, I’m being sarcastic. The UFC heavyweight division is so thin you could floss with it.