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Gable Steveson (2026) - Jon Jones, NFL and The UFC Heavyweight Title · The Joe Rogan Recap

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  Welcome to the Joe Rogan Recap, and before we get going, please
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  follow us right here on Spotify to make sure you get sight of
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  our latest episodes in your feed.
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  We are jumping straight into what feels like the ultimate
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  crossover story in combat sports.
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  Our source material today is a really, really fascinating
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  conversation from the JREMMA show featuring the Olympic gold
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  medalist Gable Stevenson. Yeah, and our mission for this
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  deep dive is to really pull out the playbook for an elite
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  athletes transition. We're not just looking at
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  Stevens story, we're trying to find those, those key Nuggets,
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  you know, the mindset shifts, the mentorship, what it actually
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  takes to pivot from 1 elite sport into the, I mean the
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  brutal world of modern MMA. You really have to frame him as
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  a true rarity. They call him a freak athlete
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  and it fits. He's an Olympic wrestling
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  champion, the pinnacle of that sport, and now he's learning to
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  strike, learning MMA with with a singular legendary figure
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  guiding him. And that contrast is everything.
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  The the intense focus of wrestling versus the, you know,
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  the total strategy of MMA. That's where the real lessons
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  are. It's such a high stakes pivot
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  and you have to start with the sheer weight of expectation on
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  him literally from birth. His full name is Gable Dan.
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  Right after Dan Gable, the legend.
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  Exactly, and Stephen himself said that Dan Gables career
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  timeline, his accomplishments, they align almost perfectly with
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  his own. Except for this part.
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  Except for this massive MMA detour, It's almost like a
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  prophecy that, you know, took a weird.
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  Turn it does. But that turn it points to a
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  real problem he talked about, which is wrestling just doesn't
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  have a robust professional league.
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  You achieve everything, you're the best in the world, and then
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  what? Where do you?
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  Go. He mentioned that American
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  freestyle promotion RAF that's trying to build those big
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  matchups, you know, create those personalities.
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  But if you're not a die hard wrestling fan, you might not
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  realize that guys like Stevenson are basically forced to look
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  elsewhere to make a real living. Which brings us to probably the
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  most baffling part of his journey, the NFL tryout.
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  Oh, this is incredible. I mean, think about this.
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  He's 24 years old, just came from the WBB, and he decides to
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  try out for the Buffalo Bills. Having never played a down of
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  organized football in his life. Never.
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  It's It's almost impossible to wrap your head around.
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  It sounds like something from a movie.
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  A comic book? Yeah.
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  A superhuman just trying on different powers.
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  And he admitted it. He showed up with no cleats.
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  He had no idea what the playbook was.
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  He called it crazy and he had absolutely 0D line technique.
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  So how did? How does he even get a serious
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  look from a professional NFL team?
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  Pure effort, That's it, he said. He just decided to control what
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  he could control, and that was sprinting his ass off in every
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  single drill. He used that raw Olympic level
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  explosiveness to make up for knowing nothing about the actual
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  sport. And they considered him for a
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  practice squad spot just based on that.
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  Just on that engine, yeah, which tells you everything about his
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  mentality. And that brings us to why he
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  left WWE. Right, because he realized he
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  couldn't give 100% to the sports entertainment side.
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  Exactly. He still had that competitive
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  fire that that do or die drive that needed a real outlet.
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  He needed a real fight. Not a performance, it's.
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  Not a performance. If you're going to go have a
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  real fight, you might as well go to the top.
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  And for that you need a guide. And his guide turns out to be
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  arguably the greatest of all time, Jon Jones.
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  How did that even start? It's almost too simple in
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  Instagram DM. No way.
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  Yep, Jones just reached out because he was a fan of
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  wrestling. That casual message turned into
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  Stevenson joining Jones camp before the 2nd sleep.
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  A fight was supposed to happen. And what's so interesting is
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  what Gabel was looking for in Jones.
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  It wasn't just, you know, teach me some moves.
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  He was drawn to Jones Drive, his aura, that ability to look
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  completely calm and sound in every single position.
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  He said Jones looked at him and basically said you can have this
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  too. It was like this immediate
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  validation. But the reality check must have
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  been insane. Oh, totally, Steven admitted.
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  He knew nothing. He didn't know how to defend a
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  punch, a kick, how to even move his feet when he first stepped
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  into the gym. And that really shows the
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  challenge, doesn't it? His entire wrestling mindset was
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  offense, offense, offense. It's me or you.
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  He never even watched film on opponents.
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  Not even in the Olympics, which is why, but there works in
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  wrestling, you know, it's a simpler geometry.
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  MMA, it's the total opposite. It demands strategy, defense,
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  adaptation. And that is John Jones's whole
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  world. O what does that mentorship
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  actually look like? It's so granular, Jones will
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  send him video clips of current top level UFC fighters and tell
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  him watch his footwork here or see how he doesn't reset his
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  weight properly there. So it's not just general advice,
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  it's constant personalized coaching.
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  Exactly. And that's where Stephen's
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  Ferrari gas analogy comes from. Oh, right, he says.
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  Most guys might have the Ferrari body, the athleticism, but
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  they're running on 87 octane basic fuel.
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  Jones puts Ferrari gas in his Ferrari.
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  The fuels is the fight IQ. That's what makes them
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  different. And Stevenson saw this up close.
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  They talked about the first Gustafson fight, how Jones was
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  barely training and just gutted it out on toughness.
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  And then the rematch, yeah, when Jones was motivated, he smoked
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  him. It just showed what happens when
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  that mind is fully engaged. There was another story, too,
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  right, about Jones being sick in camp.
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  Yeah. Stevenson saw him sick with a
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  respiratory thing, go out and do 5 hard sparring rounds just
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  mopping the floor with high level PFL and ex UFC guys.
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  After seeing that, Stevenson was convinced.
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  He's just, he's unstoppable. And that's the real lesson for
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  you, the listener, Joe Status isn't just about what you do on
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  Fight Night. It's about what you do when
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  you're sick, when no one's watching.
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  For sure. So now he's taking that
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  mentality into the heavyweight division, a division that, well,
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  they both repeatedly called shallow.
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  Shallow is a strong word. What do they mean by that?
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  I think it means that outside of the absolute top tier, you know,
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  Aspinall gone Jones, the talent pool isn't super deep.
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  So a guy like Stephen at 25, with his speed and Olympic
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  pedigree, he could really, really shake things up.
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  And we've already seen flashes of it.
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  I mean, he's only been striking for, what, seven months?
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  And he landed a perfect left hook that dropped his opponent
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  and then immediately a blastable takedown.
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  That combination is terrifying. It's the ultimate hybrid
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  signature, a clean KO punch into a world class takedown, and the
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  reason he got there so fast is because he decided to handicap
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  himself. Right, The Dirty boxing match,
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  which would probably clarify what that was.
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  He basically chose to fight a pure striking match.
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  He deliberately took his best weapon, his wrestling off the
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  table, to force himself to develop his hands to prove to
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  everyone, and probably to himself, that he wasn't just
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  going to be a wrestler in the cage.
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  That willingness to choose the harder path, that's a champions
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  mindset right there. It is, and it's defined by the
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  most powerful thing he said on the show.
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  He said that performance, that striking is the worst he will
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  ever be in MMA. Wow, that's not arrogance now.
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  It's absolute belief in his own rate of improvement.
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  It's a statement of intent. And it links right back to what
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  Jones taught him about being coachable.
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  He said you have to be all ears, put your guard down and trust
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  the team. The guys who walk in thinking
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  they already know everything, they never make it to the top.
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  Steven chose to be a sponge. And his goals are massive.
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  He wants the UFC title, wants to beat Stipe's record of five
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  defenses, but he keeps saying the real goal is to be the best
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  version of Gable, not just chase the money.
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  That focus on excellence brings up another point they made how
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  rare it is for elite fighters to develop brand new weapons late
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  in their careers. Yeah.
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  That was fascinating. But Jones is the exception.
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  At 36 years old, he develops this perfect spinning back kick
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  just for the heavyweights. And the story was he was
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  practicing it in the hotel lobby the night before a fight.
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  The night before, yeah. Still tweaking it.
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  It shows that evolution never ever stops.
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  You saw with Vitor Belfort too, developing that wheel kick at
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  3536. It's incredible, and for
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  Stevenson, the beautiful part is that just the threat of his
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  wrestling changes everything in the striking exchange it.
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  Completely changes the math we saw with Kevin Randleman and
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  Crocop years ago. Right Randleman, the wrestler
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  knocks out the legendary striker.
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  Not because his hands were better, but because Crocop was
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  so worried about the takedown that he left himself exposed for
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  a split second. That's the world Stephen is
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  stepping into. Before we get to the final take
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  away on mindset, they did touch on a really important safety
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  issue, eye pokes. Yeah, a huge ongoing problem.
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  They talked about the Aspinal game fight and the solution they
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  proposed was redesigning the glove.
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  Into more of a mitten shape. Exactly.
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  Cover the fingertips. You don't need the tips of your
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  fingers to strike, but you need your hand open to grapple.
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  A mitten design could eliminate most eye pokes without really
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  hindering the grappling. It seems so obvious.
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  It really does. And protecting a fighter's
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  fiscal health? That transitions so well into
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  what Jones is teaching him about protecting his focus.
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  Because Gable is about to go on a rocket riot of fame.
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  And with that comes so many liabilities.
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  Jones is teaching him that excellence is what brings the
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  money and fame. But the second you start
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  focusing on the fame instead of the excellence.
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  You lose your way. You lose your way.
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  You have to take your attention from bad relationships, from
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  people trying to scam you, from haters on social media.
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  Every ounce of energy spent on that is energy not spent in the
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  gym. And Jones, having gone through
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  all his own public stumbles, is probably the only person who can
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  truly guide him through that minefield.
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  He's showing him where the land mines are before he steps on
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  them. That's invaluable.
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  So if we boil it all down, Gable Stephen's advantage is this this
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  incredible trifecta. He's got the Olympic Foundation,
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  the perfect physical gifts for heavyweight, and he has
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  mentorship from the GOAT. And he has the mindset he has
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  that do or die engine, but now it's being refined by an elite
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  fight IQ. He has all the pieces which.
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  Brings us to our final provocative thought for you to
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  consider. We all know Jon Jones has had
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  huge missteps. He's been through it all and
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  he's still the GOAT. Now he's guiding his own
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  replacement, a kid who's stated goal is just to be a good man
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  and go home healthy. So the question is this Given
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  that even the greatest of all time faces those temptations,
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  how truly essential is it to find a mentor like Jones,
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  someone who has survived the chaos to navigate that rocket
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  ride of fame without losing who you are?
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  That, more than any punch or takedown, might be the biggest
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  fight Gable Stephen has ahead of him.