It appears Gable Steveson, fresh off his Olympic wrestling gold medal, is starting to make the rounds with his potential suitors.
The 21-year-old heavyweight, who mounted a come-from-behind win for the freestyle gold at the final horn in Tokyo, is scheduled to be at Bellator 265, which takes place Friday in Sioux Falls, S.D., a person with knowledge of the meeting with promotion officials told MMA Junkie.
Bellator president Scott Coker recently told MMA Junkie the promotion would be interested in signing Steveson, particularly given its history in signing standout collegiate and Olympic-level wrestlers who want to make the transition to MMA.
In addition, UFC president Dana White told TMZ that Steveson was supposed to be in Las Vegas this weekend, and said the two sides are supposed to sit down.
“Wrestling is a massive base in the UFC, and a lot of great wrestlers, including (from the Olympics), have come and done big things here,” White said. “A few years ago, they were looking to get rid of wrestling as an Olympic sport and me and the UFC here battled hard to make sure that didn’t happen. We’re very supportive of Olympic wrestling.
“(Steveson will) be in town this weekend. I think we’re going to hook up and talk. Obviously, there’s a lot of work for him to do before he could make it to the UFC, but we’ll see what happens.”
Steveson will be in Las Vegas to attend the WWE’s Summerslam event, according to a Twitter post. Steveson has said in the past he’d be interested in transitioning to either pro wrestling in the WWE or MMA.
I will be at Summer Slam this week @WWE 👀
— Gable Steveson (@GableSteveson) August 17, 2021
