Gable Steveson fired back at Craig Jones.
Earlier this year, Steveson and Jones were supposed to face each other in a grappling match at the Craig Jones Invitational 2, until the Olympic gold medalist withdrew from the event on fight week due to a case of turf toe. Of course injuries happen, but with Steveson only withdrawing from the grappling match and not his MMA debut just a couple weeks later, Jones took the whole thing personally, ripping Steveson for pulling out.
Despite Jones’s attacks, Steveson stayed silent, until an appearance with Ariel Helwani, where he affirmed that he did withdraw from CJI 2 due to turf toe, but also added that Jones wanted some “funky stipulations” even beforehand that had him uneasy.
“There was a look in the eye of saying, ‘Hey, can you do something for me?’ And that’s about all,” Steveson said. “I’m trying to keep it as nice as possible. Because when I came out of that match and had turf toe — I wrestled the whole NCAA season with turf toe … when it came back, I was like, I can’t have another mishap of me falling to someone in a way that’s not possible. So that’s why I had to pull out.
“But before that, if you really want to know, there was a look in the eye of saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to retire after this match, I don’t want to take this loss, can you do this for me?’ And we’ll leave it as that. …
“Yes [he asked me to lose on purpose],” Steveson later confirmed when asked directly.
Steveson won the gold medal at the 2020 Olympic Games at just 21 years old, becoming the youngest freestyle wrestler to win Olympic gold at super heavyweight. After a foray into professional wrestling and football, Steveson returned to his wrestling roots, but lost in the finals of the 2025 NCAA championship in a major upset. With that on his mind, Steveson was not open adding another loss to his resume.
Jones obviously made no mention of any such thing when he gave his perspective on Steveson’s withdrawal, though he did say when they spoke it was “about going in there with a friendly, fun, grow the sport sort of energy” and perhaps not as focused on competition. But from Steveson’s perspective, this was about the competition of it when they first booked the match.
“I was looking at an exciting match,” Steveson said. “I was looking at a match where we were going to go out there and sell tickets for and go out there and put on a good show. Eventually the question did come along. We sat, we thought, we disagreed, we went back to them as time got closer, just popped up with a bad injury, and had to focus on my next thing. My next thing is putting the gloves on and making sure I can take care of what I need to take care of.”
And apparently what needed to be taken care of was a parting shot at Jones, because though Steveson says he harbors no ill will towards him, he nonetheless took a swipe at Jones when discussing why he’s held his tongue this long.
“I personally did not have any ill intention with pulling out of this match,” Steveson reiterated. “My foot, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to go out there and just limp around and not look good for anybody and make sure everything just runs down a hill that it doesn’t need to run down?
“I stayed quiet because I’m a man. I’m not going to go out there and speak bad about somebody because something’s wrong or something didn’t go my way. I look at things in a different way. Maybe he doesn’t because he hasn’t accomplished anything in his field. He’s lost to Gordon Ryan about 3-4 times, his team, the B-Team won the Craig Jones Invitational, but probably shouldn’t have, so that’s a weird thing too. So I think he’s got a lot more digging than worrying about me.”
Steveson went on to win his MMA debut this past weekend, stopping his opponent in just 98 seconds.
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VIDEO STEW
Keith Jardine interview.
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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Caio Borralho wanted in.
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Chael is probably right.
Agree.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Reinier de Ridder (21-2) vs. Brendan Allen (25-7); UFC Vancouver, Oct. 18.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Terence Crawford is the best boxer I’ve ever seen. That is all.
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