Steveson is interested in venturing into MMA as well.
The announcement was made on November 12th that two-time NCAA Champion and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson is returning to the University of Minnesota Gophers amateur wrestling team. It’ll be his fifth season of competition with the school.
There was a press conference held (via FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul) featuring Steveson and the wrestling program’s head coach, Brandon Eggum. Steveson addressed how his respective runs with WWE and the NFL Buffalo Bills came to an end. As for WWE, if the stars are aligned in the future, he is not against giving it another shot. He has no bad blood towards the company.
On the NFL front, other teams reached out prior to the return to University of Minnesota. He said after the season, maybe that’s a route he could get back on.
The WWE, just wasn’t the right time. I had a lot of competitive edge in me and they knew that and it was just — it was not the time for it and so maybe one day if the stars are aligned, it’ll be a great opportunity to do it again. I have no bad feelings with it, I have no bad blood with it and I would like to keep moving forward with everything I have going on and the NFL situation (was) just definitely a great thing to do. A lot of people know I never played football before, so Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane and Buffalo Bills reached out and was like, ‘Hey, do you want to come try? We’ll give you the best chance’ and so, they did and I got a few tackles in a couple games and a few QB hits. Had a few other teams reach out to me previously before coming back to here so, maybe after the season, it’s another opportunity to get a Futures deal with the team or go on from there.
There is interest in MMA that Steveson has. He was in the corner of UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones at UFC 309. Steveson joined Jones and his team in the cage following his win over Stipe Miocic in the main event.
It does interest me a lot (idea of getting into MMA). You know, being with Jon was definitely an honor. Jon is the greatest fighter of all-time and if you know fighting and you know wrestling and you’re a fight fan, you love Jon Jones so, being able to be in that cage with him Saturday and seeing that belt live in person, it definitely gave me that fire back and he was probably one of the first ones to… no one really knew I was gonna go back to wrestling. I told him I was going to and he was really excited and he just sat me down and told me to, ‘Keep sticking to what you know best and it’ll lead you in the right direction’ and so, that really put a fire back in me and Saturday, having him beat Stipe Miocic in the third round by knockout just put a big ‘ol burn in me that I wanted to be some great too.
At the start of the presser, Steveson was asked about his decision to return to the University of Minnesota’s wrestling team and he stated the following:
Oh, just an easy decision (to return to University of Minnesota’s amateur wrestling team). I’ve been in Minnesota my whole life. Ever since I was 11 years old. I started in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Not a hard one to come back. Probably the greatest place on earth you could be and I’m honored to wrestle with this guy next to me (coach Brandon Eggum). We’ve been at it for a long time. Too long (he laughed). Having those guys look out for me while I was in the WWE and NFL and even wrestling here with R.T.C. (Regional Training Center) over that course of time period too is an honor so I’m happy to be back.
Steveson was released from WWE in May. He competed in 17 matches for the company over the course of five months. Before the 2024-2025 NFL season started, he was waived by the Buffalo Bills.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
