{"id":487209,"date":"2026-02-20T08:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T08:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487209\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T08:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T08:14:09","slug":"gable-steveson-rolls-to-3-0-in-mma-but-opts-not-to-call-for-ufc-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487209\/","title":{"rendered":"Gable Steveson rolls to 3-0 in MMA, but opts not to call for UFC"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brett OkamotoFeb 20, 2026, 01:54 PM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Brett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN since 2010. He has covered all of the biggest events in combat sports during that time, including in-depth interviews and features with names such as Dana White, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao and Georges St-Pierre. He was also a producer on the 30 for 30 film: “Chuck and Tito,” which looked back at the careers and rivalry of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. He lives in Las Vegas, and is an avid, below-average golfer in his spare time.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

Former U.S. Olympic gold medalist wrestler Gable Steveson<\/a> improved to 3-0 as a professional mixed martial artist Thursday but did not call for his next fight to take place in the UFC.<\/p>\n

Steveson, 25, cruised to a first-round TKO over veteran Hugo Lezama<\/a> (11-4) at Mexico Fight League 3 in Monterrey, Mexico. The finish came at the 3:50 mark, as Steveson landed a series of unanswered strikes on the ground. Before Thursday, Steveson had hinted at a potential call for the UFC and even the promotion’s White House event this summer with a victory, but he ultimately opted against it.<\/p>\n

“I feel great. I’m getting better each day,” Steveson said. “I’m going to take a shower, go back to my hotel and fall asleep.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

Steveson, who is also a two-time NCAA Division I champion wrestler, has been on the UFC’s radar for more than a year. He trains alongside UFC legend Jon Jones<\/a> in Albuquerque, New Mexico. UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard was in attendance for Steveson’s boxing debut in October, which he won via 24-second knockout.<\/p>\n

Although he dominated Lezama on Thursday, he did show signs of inexperience. Lezama landed a wild spinning wheel kick on the feet, and Steveson looked slightly fatigued even though the fight ended in the opening round. Nevertheless, it was a relatively one-sided contest against an opponent with far more experience in MMA.<\/p>\n

Jones has predicted Steveson will win the UFC heavyweight championship by early 2027. The two have mentioned the possibility of each accepting a UFC fight at the White House, despite Steveson’s decision to not amplify that message Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brett OkamotoFeb 20, 2026, 01:54 PM CloseBrett Okamoto has reported on mixed martial arts and boxing at ESPN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-487209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}