Last month, Olympic gold winner Gable Steveson made his comeback to collegiate wrestling after a failed stint in the WWE. However, his wrestling return didn’t pan out the way he’d have hoped for. In fact, his loss at the NCAA 2025 Championships Final to Wyatt Hendrickson could be seen as a modern iteration of David slaying Goliath! A monumental result that was termed “the biggest upset in NCAA history” by Daniel Cormier and rightly so. Now, Stevenson has turned his attention to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and is set to compete against Craig Jones at the second edition of the Craig Jones Invitational on 31 August 2025. However, this decision has prompted MMA legend Chael Sonnen to raise some serious questions as he compared the 2-time NCAA champion to ultra-popular and freak fight connoisseur, Bob Sapp.

Sapp was a prominent figure in the late 1990s and early 2000s and was heavily featured in marquee matchups in the Japanese MMA scene. The 350-pounder started his career as an NFL player, prominently playing for the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings. However, his career was cut short by controversies surrounding steroid use and he eventually found himself out of football and into professional wrestling. After that endeavor, Sapp also sunk his hands into kickboxing and MMA as well.

Claiming that Gable Steveson is on the same boat as Sapp, ‘The Bad Guy’ stated, “Was he [Bob Sapp] a football player? Cos’ he played a little bit of football. Was he a kickboxer? I saw him in K-1. Was he MMA? Most of those look like works,” on his YouTube channel. “It’s just one of these spots, and Gable [Steveson] is flirting with that.”

Moreover, Chael Sonnen expressed a bit of disappointment with Gable Steveson for choosing to compete at CJI 2. He understood that the payout could be pretty good, and the Olympic champ could get more such lucrative offers in the future, but engaging too much in those endeavors may end up with him losing the prime years of his life as an athlete. And this would ultimately delay Steveson’s intentions to fight in the UFC until he decides otherwise.

“There will be money. There will be opportunity… And there would be nothing wrong with doing it. I’m just sharing that those opportunities aren’t going to stop coming Gable’s way anytime soon and they’re gonna get sillier and sillier… The silliness is not going to end until Gable makes it end,” Chael Sonnen added. “Time will go on… Before you know it, you’re 30, you’re 32. You’re not the young guy anymore. In fact, you’re not even a guy that any coach is looking for. There’s no gym anywhere in the world for any sport that a 32-year-old can walk in and have a coach get excited about.”

Well, Gable Steveson just recently mentioned what he wants to do next, and that definitely seems to be MMA. However, he revealed that he had received some other offers in another sport as well. Here’s what he had to say.

Gable Steveson claims he’s training for MMA but has received NFL offers

During a recent interview on ‘The Pat McAfee’ show, Gable Steveson revealed that he’s training in multiple facets of the fighting game to make his MMA debut in the foreseeable future. So maybe the grappling match against Craig Jones is a chance for him to get better before making his MMA debut. However, Chael Sonnen may not have been wrong in comparing the 24-year-old to Bob Sapp because Steveson revealed that he’s got some offers to play in the NFL as well. These offers appeared to be in consideration for the Olympic champ, as he claimed that he was not sure what he would do next.

“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. Or right after I stepped off the mat Saturday night,” Gable Steveson stated. “I got a couple of calls from new teams in the NFL. The roads keep opening … I’m just so happy where I am today and where the future’s gonna take me.”

Well, for someone who was touted to be the future of American wrestling, Gable Steveson surely has found himself at a crossroads. Regardless, what do you think the future holds for the Olympic gold medalist? Drop your comments below.