Gable Steveson has witnessed a loss in a match very few times in his life. He’s used to winning most of the time, be it in the Olympics or the NCAA. He is a decorated wrestling star and achieved Olympic gold in freestyle wrestling at the 2020 Summer Olympics, a two-time NCAA Division I national champion, and a two-time Hodge Trophy winner. However, according to an ex-UFC champion, hubris might’ve taken over him before a recent NCAA national championship loss for the University of Minnesota athlete.
Former UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman decided to dissect why Steveson lost this fight against Wyatt Hendrickson after not budging for 69 straight matches in the NCAA championships. He lost it with just 15 seconds left by a score of 5-4 in what is being dubbed the biggest loss in the history of college wrestling.
According to Usman, it was because of arrogance. While speaking with Henry Cejudo in the latest Pound 4 Pound podcast, he highlighted why he thought so. Usman said, “It didn’t seem like and correct me if I’m wrong, it didn’t seem like he was focused all through the summer, he was focused. ‘I am going back. I’m gonna go compete for college, so I’m doing the groundwork to get there.’ Because when you get as high as Gable Steveson Olympic champion, then he’s going to WWE, and then from WWE, he is going to football. Now he’s in training camp for football to where I feel like it was just like you know, I got some time. Let me go to the NCAA again. To where there is a certain just kind of arrogance, and I’m not meaning just like he’s arrogant.”
With all the achievements stacked up in his resume, Steveson might have gotten overconfident and thought that he could win NCAA Championships again. Usman continued that it went to a place “where you don’t respect the game like these guys, they are in there day and day out grinding, and then when you go into it, you start having success. Gable Steveson was playing with dudes.”
The 24-year-old is a multiple-time champion and had come into the finals with an undefeated record this season. Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show, the former WWE star said that he was upset with his loss, but was happy going back out and trying to claim another title.
“I’m not happy with the result that happened this past weekend,” Steveson said. “But it’s a blessing to go out there in front of the crowd, in front of the biggest stage, and since leaving in 2022, I’ve always wanted to go out there and give one last good push for the University of Minnesota.” In fact, contrary to what Usman said, he was humble enough to acknowledge that it was not his day and he was not upset about the loss. “Win or lose, like I said, I’m always a showman,” said Steveson. Even though his dream of remaining undefeated was broken, he has a new dream.
Gable Steveson’s wish related to Dana White’s promotion
Appearing on the Pat McAfee show, Gable Steveson expressed, “I’ve not spoken to Dana personally. That’s one meeting that I would love to have face-to-face, you know. I’ve been waiting a long time to see him.” The UFC head honcho had reached out to him in 2021 after the Olympics and wanted him to see Vegas and everything else about UFC fights. However, even if he did go to Vegas, the dream of talking to Dana White did not get fulfilled.
Steveson genuinely wants to show White what he can do and what he’s capable of, even though his resume speaks for itself. However, White already knew about him and complimented Steveson three years back in an interview. White said, “Obviously, there’s a lot of work for him to do before he could make it to the UFC.” However, Steveson did have a chance to train with Jon Jones. The 24-year-old wrestler formerly trained with the coaches at Kill Cliff FC in Florida and accepted an invitation to help Jon Jones prepare for the UFC heavyweight title defense against Stipe Miocic.
Do you think that his loss was due to arrogance? Will the UFC boss consider him for a fight inside the cage? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The post “There’s a Certain Arrogance” – Ex-UFC Champ Underlines Bitter Truth Behind Gable Steveson’s NCAA Championship Finals Loss appeared first on EssentiallySports.