‘That Kind Of Speed Is Bananas’

Joe Rogan is bullish on Gable Steveson’s UFC future.

Admittedly, it’s hard not to be impressed even if Steveson isn’t signed to the UFC. In fact, he’s spent less than three full minutes competing in any kind of professional combat competition. In two professional MMA fights and one Dirty Boxing slugfest, he’s scored a trio of vicious knockout wins, showing ferocious speed and aggression. Given he has an Olympic gold medal in freestyle wrestling to go along with his punching power, it’s easy to see Steveson achieving great success in MMA.

Is he already at the elite level though? Joe Rogan thinks so. In a recent episode of The JRE MMA Show, Rogan hosted Steveson and paid him several compliments. In doing so, he expressed his belief that there’s just a handful of Heavyweights who could even hope to compete with Steveson and that the rest of the division is f—ked.

“I sent Dana White a text message. I said ‘Everyone’s f—ked,” Rogan told Steveson (via MMA Insight). “ … That kind of speed, incorporated with elite wrestling is crazy.”

He continued, “The heavyweight division is so shallow right now. You’ve got Tom Aspinall, Ciryl Gane, Jon Jones if he chooses to fight again, Francis [Ngannou] … if by some miracle they can work something out and bring him back to the UFC. Other than that there’s no one compelling for like a championship calibre fighter. There’s basically four or five guys on earth that are in this championship calibre class. And you’re already there, which is nuts, and you haven’t even fought in the UFC yet.

“When I watched you move and I watched you fight I was like, ‘ok, how do you stop that? Whose got the skills to be able to stop that?’ And in mind there’s like only a few guys that’s going to be a problem. The Francis Ngannou’s, the Ciryl Gane’s and the Tom Aspinall’s. That’s it! The only problem is gonna be you getting fights. That kind of speed is bananas for a 250-pound man.”

It’s clear that Steveson’s potential is sky high. He’s a remarkable athlete with unreal ground skills and a natural knack for violence trained by Jon Jones — that’s a recipe for success! Still, we have seen elite wrestlers struggle with more experienced opposition early in their careers. There’s a high probability that Steveson won’t be quite so fast if anybody extends him into the second or third round, and those kinds of learning experiences are important for young fighters.

At 25 years of age, there’s plenty of time for Steveson to work his way into the elite ranks. There’s no need to rush him into the cage with Ciryl Gane or even Derrick Lewis. Like Bo Nickal before him, he’s already proven himself worthy of a Contenders Series shot despite his limited cage time. Maybe a win there sets up a UFC White House debut in the official Octagon?