Gable Steveson is now a winning professional mixed martial artist.
For what has seemed like a long time coming, the Olympic gold medalist wrestler brought his skills to the cage for his MMA debut at LFA 217 at Mystic Lake Casino in Prior Lake, Minn., against Braden Peterson. With his training partner, former UFC champ Jon Jones in his corner, Steveson (1-0) brought the fight to Peterson (1-1) from the start, leading to a fast TKO victory at 1:38 in Round 1.
All it took was Steveson to quickly snatch up a single leg to drop Peterson to the canvas. From there, it was patient, yet powerful work on the mat, mixing in hard elbows and threatening a submission. Ultimately, Steveson closed the show by posturing up and raining down hard punches until the referee stopped the fight.
Check out video of the finish below (via Instagram):
Steveson, 25, won Olympic gold in freestyle wrestling at the 2020 Summer Games and has since dabbled in various athletic endeavours. He signed with WWE, pursuing a career in professional wrestling; however, that did not work out. Steveson was also signed briefly by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills to play defense, but was released. He returned to collegiate wrestling to rack up more accolades at the University of Minnesota before deciding to give it a go in MMA, which has been teased throughout his wrestling career.
