Less than three years later, during the 2024 NFL offseason, the Buffalo Bills signed Gable Steveson as a defensive tackle. Training camp for the Bills in upstate New York came and went, with Steveson, who had no previous experience in the game of football, recording three tackles in August.
This would be the extent of Steveson’s NFL career as he failed to keep his spot on the roster after the final cuts following the exhibition season. From there, he returned to college wrestling and the University of Minnesota as a graduate student.
Gable Steveson turns to MMA
Qualifying for the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Tournament as a No. 1 seed, he worked his way through the bracket and qualified for the title match against No. 2 seed Wyatt Hendrickson of Oklahoma State University. Gable Steveson’s wrestling career ended in defeat, with Hendrickson taking the national championship at 5-4.
In September 2025, Steveson began the next chapter of his sporting career by making his professional MMA debut. Braden Petersen (1-3 MMA) served as his opponent on September 12.
25-year-old Gable Steveson made quick work of Petersen in LFA 217, needing just one minute and 38 seconds to stop his opponent with punches. After an October appearance on the dirty boxing promotion DBX with the main event of DBX 4, where he finished the match in 15 blistering seconds against Billy Swanson (4-3 MMA), he made another quick turnaround for a November 23 fight against Kevin Hein (2-2, 1 NC), a fight that ended in 24 seconds.
Steveson knows he is on the UFC radar
In 71 days, Gable Steveson had already fought and won three times in combat sports. Now a match awaits him on February 19 in the Mexico Fight League’s MFL 3 from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. His opponent on the Thursday evening card: Hugo Lezama (11-3 MMA.)
Lezama will be the toughest test yet in Steveson’s young MMA career after winning four straight fights heading into MFL 3. Steveson has one plus in that he has learned under former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
With highlights already on his resume, he has reason enough to know he will be on the UFC’s radar. Gable Steveson spoke with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto recently about this.
“I think they’re watching closely,” Gable Steveson said with a chuckle. ‘I think they’re keeping an eye on things [on me.] Don’t know. You would hope they keep a close eye, but I know they do, just me in humble, beautiful words. They are watching, that’s all I have to say.”
Gable Steveson buying ‘Bones’ claims he will soon become a UFC champion
It’s no secret that the UFC heavyweight division has fallen on hard times lately in the wake of the championship fight between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane that ended in a no-contest last October. Earlier this week, No. 6 prospect Jailton Almeida found himself left out of a UFC roster. This roster move came about after Almeida’s manager confirmed he was looking for a fight at light heavyweight for his next bout.
Some pundits have recently called for the UFC to ditch the heavyweight division altogether, but Jon Jones believes that Gable Steveson could be the UFC heavyweight champion by then in 2027.
“I believe it,” Steveson said. “I believe it because I have complete confidence in myself. With a guy like Jon showing me the way, I feel like my confidence goes through the roof. The best part about it is seeing me firsthand, training with him, hitting the pads and going through all the motions, so his word is worth gold in that.”
Final Thoughts: Steveson will be one to watch as 2026 continues
If Gable Steveson’s rise continues uninterrupted, the sky will undoubtedly be the limit for this young man. He’s only 25 and won’t turn 26 until the end of May. Steveson has already proven himself in the early days of his MMA career as a force to be reckoned with at the age of 265.
Imagine how much more dominant he will be when he reaches his athletic peak. Should he win on Thursday, Steveson, whose name has surfaced as a possibility for June’s UFC White House card in Washington DC, could skip the bout. Contender series route completely and head straight to the big leagues.
This young man will be a prospect to keep an eye on as the year continues without a doubt.
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