Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson has officially joined the UFC roster.
Steveson’s signing was announced Saturday during the UFC 327 broadcast as he sat next to his coach and mentor, former UFC two-division champion Jon Jones.
While Steveson joining the UFC has felt like a foregone conclusion, the promotion finally pulled the trigger after he started his career with a perfect 3-0 record, with all three fights ending by first-round knockout.
The UFC also announced that Steveson’s debut is already
set for UFC 329 on July 11, which takes place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to cap off this year’s International Fight Week. No opponent has been selected yet for Steveson’s first UFC fight.
A two-time NCAA champion from the University of Minnesota, Steveson became the first American to capture Olympic gold at 125-kg since Bruce Baumgartner won in 1992. He put on a stunning performance throughout the 2020 games by shutting out his first few opponents and then delivering one of the most thrilling finishes in Olympic wrestling history with a last-second takedown to beat Geno Petriashvili in the finals.
After the Olympics, Steveson debated going into MMA or professional wrestling, eventually choosing the later and signing a developmental contract with WWE. He trained for several months and appeared on WWE programming a few times, but Steveson was eventually released from his contract with the company.
He then tried out for the Buffalo Bills, before ultimately being cut before the season started.
That led to Steveson to turn his full attention towards fighting, especially after teaming up with Jones and his coaching staff in New Mexico. Steveson made his MMA debut in 2025, scoring a knockout win in less than two minutes.
Steveson picked up two more wins with a combined four minutes and 14 seconds spent in the cage to move his record to 3-0. Now Steveson joins the UFC roster and looks to put the heavyweight division on notice when he debuts in July.
