Could Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson Follow the Brock Lesnar Blueprint?
Gable Steveson might as well have been born in the wrestling room. By the time his parents brought him home from the hospital in 2000, his older brothers—Bobby and the late John—were already established in the sport, and once he was old enough to walk, he was being shepherded on to the mats himself.
Despite the sport's presence at the center of his universe, however, Steveson has long been giving thought to his next chapter. After a dramatic gold-medal victory at the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the Dan Hodge trophy winner and NCAA Division I champion is ready to start penning it.
"Having an open book that I can write my own story in is something really cool," Steveson told Bleacher Report not long after returning home from the Olympics.
Since the moment Steveson stepped off the podium in Japan, he's been one of the hottest free agents in all of combat sports. He's been whisked from state to state, arena to arena, office to office, meeting and glad-handing with some of the most influential people in the combat sports space, from the titans of the pro wrestling world to the top promoters in MMA—all of whom are eager to enlist his services and capitalize on his prophesied superstardom.
One of the latest organizations to court the Olympian was the Professional Fighters League (PFL), an upstart MMA outfit that presents the sport in a unique, seasonal format with playoffs, finals and a million-dollar prize for the champion of each weight class.
Steveson was in the building for the league's latest event, and he even had the opportunity to get a feel for its proprietary Smart Cage. He's impressed with the PFL's product and understandably finds the prospect of a million-dollar prize alluring.
"I've paid attention to the league," he said. "I mean, everyone's familiar with the PFL. It's an organization that's continuing to build their guys, build their people up, and there's a few former wrestlers in there like Lance Palmer and Bubba Jenkins. I grew up watching Bubba wrestle David Taylor in NCAA finals.
"The organization's great," he added. "They give a clear path to the million dollars and to be a champion.
"They've got fantastic owners, and they're doing a great job of promoting their fighters."
The PFL has a proven track record of turning Olympians into MMA stars. Kayla Harrison, who won gold medals in judo at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, has spent the entirety of her 11-fight MMA career with the league and is its defending lightweight champion. The league also recently promoted the successful MMA debut of Claressa Shields, who won Olympic gold as a boxer in 2012 and 2016.
The league's history with Olympians is not lost on Steveson.
"That's very cool," he said. "Claressa is really, really good. She's phenomenal. Her coming over from boxing and winning her fight and doing her thing is really cool. Kayla did a fantastic job, too. Those two girls are out to get some belts and some championships. I tip my hat to those ladies. They're doing a fantastic job. What PFL has done with Olympians is something great.
"You see how far they've gotten with their careers and what they're doing now...they're doing a wonderful job."
While Steveson is impressed with the PFL product, he's adamant that no decisions about his future have been made just yet. He could sign with the PFL. He could sign with another MMA promotion. After getting some face time in with Vince McMahon, he could follow in the footsteps of the likes of Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar and take his world-class athleticism to the WWE ring. He could also continue to wrestle for the time being. He could do some combination of the above.
He has some big decisions to make.
"I'm fielding options," he said. "I'm meeting everybody, I'm saying 'hey.' Vince gave me a warm welcome. PFL gave me a warm welcome, too. The options are open. We don't know yet.
"I have the option to go back to school and wrestle for another year," he added. "Right now, we're weighing all the options."
Whatever the future holds for Steveson, the people who know him well believe there are plenty more trophies, medals and championships in his future. Even former UFC champions Daniel Cormier and Henry Cejudo—both former Olympic wrestlers themselves—are among his believers.
"It's really cool that DC and Cejudo have said such great things about me in interviews and wherever else," he said. "Those guys are former champions, and they've done their job in the UFC and they know what it takes to get there. I'm glad they see me as a person that can do that too. It's very nice to get that type of praise from those types of guys."
With the endorsements of some of the biggest names in combat sports and a trophy case that's more crowded than most library bookshelves, you might expect Steveson's head to get a little big. The wrestling sensation certainly has plenty of self-confidence, but he's staying humble as he considers his future—whether it unfolds in the PFL or WWE, with both or with neither.
"I'm confident in my abilities to have success in life," he said. "I'm going to keep working hard and stay humble and put my best foot forward in everything I do.
"It would be very cool to have my hand raised in all [these sports], but one thing at a time for now. I'm just happy to be in the spot that I'm in now.
"I've made it this far, and I'm just going to keep pushing and keep working hard."
