Olympic champion Gable Steveson won’t have his world-class wrestling as a weapon when he crosses over to Dirty Boxing.
On Wednesday, the promotion announced Steveson is set to clash with Billy Swanson in the main event of Dirty Boxing 4 scheduled for Oct. 30 in Nashville, Tenn.
Steveson, the youngest American to ever capture an Olympic gold medal in wrestling when he won at the 2020 Tokyo games, recently made a successful MMA debut. At LFA 217, Steveson needed
less than two minutes to dispatch Brady Peterson after he scored a single takedown followed by some vicious ground-and-pound.
The 25-year-old was cornered for the fight by former two-division UFC champion Jon Jones, who has become a close friend and mentor to the wrestling prodigy from the University of Minnesota. Technically, Steveson is fighting for Jones as the UFC legend became a part-owner in Dirty Boxing after the company was founded by UFC veteran and current BKFC superstar Mike Perry.
Competing in Dirty Boxing may just be a one-time deal because most believe Steveson is destined to make waves in the UFC sooner or later.
As for Swanson, he’s a PFL and Bellator veteran who most recently competed in BKFC when he suffered a TKO loss to Bear Hill at the promotion’s event in South Dakota in August. Swanson has his hands full with Steveson, widely regarded as one of the best prospects to ever enter the sport of MMA.
Steveson won’t have his full complement of weapons this time around, however, as Dirty Boxing employs a different rule set than traditional MMA.
The fight goes down on Oct. 30 from Nashville with Dirty Boxing currently airing its events on YouTube.
