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. The video captioned, “Gable Steveson vs Craig Jones” showed 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!” 

But then Sapp, in his white shorts, picked up his opponent and gave him a nasty power bomb. “Oh! Yeah! Good boy! Good job!” screamed the commentator. “Gable Steveson vs Craig Jones,” read the in-video caption. The parallels? All too obvious. Much like how Sapp had almost a 150lbs advantage over Nogueira, Steveson also weighs significantly more than Jones. But then, if Sapp is supposed to be Steveson, how is the video a mockery of the Olympic champion?

Well, that’s because the match-up ended with Nogueira winning after he put Sapp in a fight-ending armbar.

But wait! If you think that the mockery is going to stop anytime soon, you’ve got another thing coming. Why? Because Craig Jones plans to continue taking digs till the day of the fight. “@gable after listening to 5 months of wrestling jokes,” read the caption accompanying the post. In fact, he left one joke in the top comment: “@gable after our media team spells his last name wrong one more time”. Well, in their defense, Stevenson and Steveson are confusing.

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. 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.

But before we see a rematch of the NCAA Championships, we’ve got an exciting cross-sport event. How do you think the fight between Steveson and Jones will pan out? Will it be a repeat of the Sapp-Nogueira showdown, or will the Olympic champ have the last laugh?