John “Bradshaw” Layfield does not see a clear path back for Gable Steveson after the Olympic gold medalist’s knockout loss at UFC 331.
Sean Sharaf knocked Steveson out with a left hook 12 seconds into their heavyweight fight on September 19 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Steveson entered as a -2400 favorite, and CBS Sports called the result one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. It was his first professional MMA loss and dropped him to 4-1.
Speaking on the September 25 episode of Something To Wrestle with Conrad Thompson, JBL said the loss follows a pattern of Steveson struggling to find his place outside amateur wrestling.
“I don’t see how you bounce back. He’s done a lot of things. He came into wrestling. I saw him when he was there, and he just wasn’t great for WWE. Just didn’t quite have the knack of the working part of it, and the charisma part of it. Obviously he’s a terrific amateur wrestler,” JBL said. “I saw him out there with Shelton Benjamin, and Shelton did everything he could with him, but unfortunately I just don’t think our business was made for him.”
Steveson signed with WWE in 2021 after winning heavyweight freestyle gold at the Tokyo Olympics. His only televised match for the company came against Baron Corbin at NXT Great American Bash in 2023, and he was released in May 2024.
JBL said crossing over into any sport as an adult is a steep climb, pointing to Steveson’s brief attempt at football. Steveson signed with the Buffalo Bills as a defensive tackle in 2024 but was released before the regular season.
“And then you saw him try to play some football, and those guys been playing their whole lives. It’s like, who cares if you’re a great athlete? You’re a great athlete. You’re not going to get into wrestling when you’re 25 years old. It’s like you’re not getting into football or anything else when you’re 25 years old. Guys grow up doing that stuff. There’s a reason that they’re on top of the world,” he said.
“If You Want to Fight a Wrestler, Punch Him”
JBL said the result reflected an old rule for facing a decorated wrestler. He recalled Eddie Guerrero once admitting to him that it was a mistake to try a leg dive on Kurt Angle, an Olympic gold medalist.
“If you want to fight a wrestler, punch him. You fight a wrestler, you wrestle a puncher, and that’s what I think you learned right there. Maybe he can’t take a punch. I don’t know. Maybe he just walked into a right that would have knocked out a horse. I don’t know, but I don’t know where you go from here. To be that big of a favorite, it’s going to be tough to work your way back up,” JBL said.
He said Steveson’s name and heel persona could still earn him another opportunity in the UFC, but it would come with little margin for error.
“I don’t think he’s going to get a shot on the UFC main card. He may because of his name, and people want to see him get beat. He is being a heel. And people want to see him get beat, and he is going to draw some money and some interest to do that. So he may get another shot, but if he does, he better win, or that is going to be it,” JBL said.
Drawing Power
Thompson asked whether a second knockout would also hurt Steveson’s value in Real American Freestyle, where Steveson headlined RAF 09 in May with a 10-0 technical fall over Alexandr Romanov. JBL cited former heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko, who he said became guarded about his chin after being knocked out earlier in his career, and said the same concern follows any fighter who has been stopped.
“The problem is, once you get dropped once, you talk to any old boxing trainer, you talk to any old fighter, it’s kind of like once you get knocked out once, it’s easier to get knocked out the second time. Whatever it is in your body, I have no idea. But you talk to any fighters, they all believe that. I do too,” JBL said. “I think once you start getting dinged, it starts happening again and again, and I think he’s more susceptible to it now. But if he gets knocked out again or gets beat again, I just don’t think there’s, unfortunately, there’s just not going to be any drawing power there for him.”
“Now if he wins, there’s maybe something he can do. He’s got a gift in some way of some charisma that people want to see him, basically want to see him lose. But so what? They want to see him. If he can win, he may have some legs with this. But if not, I think he’s done,” he said.
Steveson addressed the loss in a statement on September 22, congratulating Sharaf and making clear he intends to keep fighting. He did not give a timeline for his return. The statement also responded to a 2019 sexual assault allegation from Steveson’s college years that Sharaf raised during fight week. Steveson denied the allegation and said he was never charged with a crime, and Dice City Sports reported the matter was closed after prosecutors cited insufficient evidence.
His coach, former UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones, took responsibility for Steveson leaving the Octagon before the official result was announced, saying on X that it was his decision to take Steveson straight to the back.
