Wrestling folks, get your gears ready because Gable Steveson is fighting again. After his NCAA loss to Wyatt Hendrickson, the former Minnesota wrestler has made it clear that several avenues remain open for him. But now we are going to see him fight Craig Jones. The latter is going to fight the Olympian in the very invitational that was named after himself, i.e. CJI 2. So we better warm up for August 31st for the fight that is to take place in Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, NV. After all, Craig Jones is doing his part to build the hype with some top-drawer mockery of his future opponent.
On April 5, Jones shared a video dating all the way back to 2002 on his Instagram handle. It was a snippet from the PRIDE Shockwave 2002 in which Bob Sapp and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira went head to head. The ring bell rang, and before you knew it, Nogueira made a move for Sapp’s leg. The commentator’s voice summed it all up as he said, “Noguera shoots for the takedown! Oh! Yeah! Good boy! Good job!”
The sudden enthusiastic burst happened because Sapp in his white shorts had picked up his opponent and power-bombed him. Ultimately, the match-up ended with Sapp winning after he put Nogueira in a fight-ending armbar. Interestingly, the video itself was posted by Craig Jones himself. He even tagged Gable in both of his comments on the video. One read, “@gable after listening to 5 months of wrestling jokes” while the second one said, “@gable after our media team spells his last name wrong one more time”. Well to their defense, Stevenson and Steveson are confusing.
But the bigger question here is who’s Sapp here? Well, the two must have shared the reel with different definitions of Sapp. Craig announced the fight through an Instagram post on April 1. Yes the date can raise concerns of April Fools but the subsequent posts related to it confirmed the fight. Gable Steveson is trying something new.
Gable has been exposed to a whole lot of criticism for trying different things. Now as he has hinted at coming to MMA, he might face his biggest opponent there.
Gable Steveson might face his greatest opponent in MMA
Perhaps the biggest question going around in wrestling as of now is what will Gable Steveson do? Is he going to join the UFC? The Tokyo Olympian has been training for MMA under a very good coach, Jon Jones. “What’s next for me is I’ve been boxing, I’ve been putting on the gloves, doing jiu-jitsu classes, trying to get ready for an MMA career,” Steveson said. But as he gears up for MMA so does his biggest opponent.
Wyatt Hendrickson broke a 73-0 streak when he executed that takedown on the former Gopher to clinch the NCAA title. Now he has also expressed his thoughts over UFC, MMA AND WWE. Wyatt is a military man and is open to new things. He said, “I love MMA. I love everything about it. But one thing, I love punching people in the face. But, obviously, being punched in the face sucks, getting hit in the head. I do have a little bit of history with some concussions, and there could be some caution there.” Well, to give a punch you gotta take one two.
But the history of concussions is not stooping the 2025 NCAA champions. He further said, ” I really think I need to get some gloves on and see how it feels. Obviously, it’s no joke. MMA is no joke. Getting punched by someone who knows how to punch, getting knocked out is not super fun. As long as I can do what I want to do safely, I’m going to do what I can.” Further he told that he has done a little training in MMA but as of right now he is focusing solely on wrestling.
The post Craig Jones Mocks Gable Steveson as Olympic Champion Receives Teaser Ahead Upcoming Fight appeared first on EssentiallySports.
