Gable Steveson has a taker.
In a regional landscape that doesn’t have hands shooting up to face a former Olympic gold medalist, one man has risen to the occasion for the Nov. 23 bout at Anthony Pettis FC 21 in Albuquerque, N.M. Steveson (1-0) will face Florida-based big man Kevin Hein (2-1), the promotion announced Monday.
Hein, 32, stands 6-foot-2 and weighed 220 pounds for his most recent bout in August, which he lost by second-round TKO under the Combat Night banner. The loss was his first in MMA after a 4-0 amateur stint and a 2-0 professional start with an additional no contest.
Why aren’t other American heavyweight wrestlers clamoring to get into MMA?!??
Maybe bc they still want a shot at the Olympic dream? Gable got his early and now has the freedom to chase other pursuits?
MMA is the b side to wrestling…
Gable just doesn’t love wrestling…
When you say American heavyweight wrestlers, you’re mostly talking about people who would NOT be heavyweights in MMA, football players just looking to stay busy in the offseason, and blobs. Not a whole lot of untapped in-between.
Then you have the ones who do try and realize that they don’t like getting hit (ala Anthony Cassar).
That’s because he knows he could be number 1 in wrestling and people would have no idea who he is .. no one watches that gay shit
the only reason anyone knows who he is now is 100% because of wrestling…
you nerds are so adorable…
anyone can cherry pick anything from the googlewebs to try and make whatever point they want to make…
Depends on the environment. Wrestlers are revered in that part of the world and legit celebrities.
No one cares outside of those areas. But Gable used his wrestling accolades to get to where he is now. Without them, he’s still wrestling instead of trying to use his notoriety to make money/become a celebrity, etc…
I’d say an American with Sadulaev’s credentials isn’t close to being as big a name here unless he’s using these credentials to do other things like MMA, etc…
it was just a quick example used to illustrate a point…
the simple fact of the matter is that if MMA is not the b-side to wrestling then why do we only see a very small percentage ever attempt even after wrestling is shown again and again and again to be the most effective martial art in the sport?
Turns out guys in tights rolling around with other guys in tights is just not that interesting .. ya gotta add punches, kicks and submissions to make it worth one’s time
Wrestlers are very tough in their own way but many don’t like getting punched in the face or kicked in the leg or shut down by a great submission grappler.
Lets face it, gone are the days when a great wrestler can just come into mma and dominate without learning other skills - look at Bo Nickal - his wrestling is pretty much completely ineffective so far - Pat Downey was completely unable to do anything even at the lower levels in bellator .. the only exception here is the hvwt division .. it will be interesting to see what Gable can do - I’m definitely rooting for him
Did Islam win with wrestling 50-10 or did he not ?
