The episode features Gable Steveson, Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, professional MMA fighter, and former Buffalo Bills player, alongside host Joe Rogan. Steveson was named after legendary wrestler Dan Gable and went on to win Olympic gold in wrestling before transitioning to MMA.

The conversation covers Steveson's unique athletic journey, including his brief stint in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills despite never playing football before, his time with WWE, and his current MMA career. Steveson trains with John Jones at Jackson Wink MMA and has been striking for only seven months seriously.

They discuss the shallow heavyweight division in MMA, the mental toughness required for wrestling, and how elite athletic ability translates across sports. Steveson shares insights about training with John Jones, his approach to learning new skills, and his philosophy on excellence over fame.

The discussion also explores conspiracy theories, drug trafficking's impact on society, the corruption in Miami during the Cocaine era, and the importance of maintaining focus while navigating fame and temptation in combat sports.

Named After Greatness: The Gable Legacy

Gable's mother named him after Dan Gable after hearing his name repeatedly at a wrestling tournament in Iowa. "She kept hearing Gable, Gable, Gable. And it was Dan Gable at the time" - Gable

The prophetic nature of the name proved true as Gable followed a similar timeline to Dan Gable's career, winning Olympic gold in wrestling

Gable wishes Dan Gable had competed in MMA: "I think he would have been amazing. But it wasn't around. I mean, when he was wrestling"

Wrestling's Professional Outlet Problem

"It's kind of fucked that there's no real professional outlet for actual wrestling" - Joe, discussing the lack of career paths for elite wrestlers

Real American Freestyle (RAF) is attempting to create a professional wrestling league, though sustainability remains uncertain

The public associates wrestling primarily with MMA or professional wrestling rather than as a standalone sport, limiting its commercial appeal in America

Soccer faces similar challenges in America despite global popularity, with athletes like Ronaldo earning $500 million while American sports fragment the market

Wrestling as the Ultimate MMA Foundation

"Wrestling is the best base for MMA, because if a guy can dictate where the fight takes place, that is the most important aspect of fighting" - Joe

The mental toughness developed through wrestling creates an unmatched competitive advantage: "Nobody gets there easy. You got to have everything, man"

Current UFC dominance comes from fighters who master "MMA wrestling" - adapting traditional wrestling to cage fighting with proper shot selection and guillotine defense

Islam Makachev and Hamzat Chimaev exemplify the evolution: "They're really going out there and attacking and making sure that people can understand that, hey, you got to fear this. And then next, I'm going to come with the hands"

From Olympics to NFL Without Playing Football

Gable tried out for the Buffalo Bills at age 24 having never played football before: "I've never had football cleats on. I never had pads on. I don't even know how to put the tights on"

Sean McDermott signed him based purely on effort: "If I don't know any technique for D-line, you're going to see effort. And McDermott saw effort, and that's all he needed to see"

The complexity of NFL playbooks proved challenging beyond just physical execution - reading silent counts, guard positioning, and defensive schemes required extensive study

After being cut from Buffalo, Gable received tryouts with Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts before deciding to pursue MMA full-time

Training With the GOAT: John Jones Mentorship

John Jones reached out via Instagram DM and invited Gable to training camp: "Me and John hit it off like that. We hit it off"

Watching Jones backstage at Madison Square Garden changed Gable's perspective: "I saw this guy face to face. And you know, he's just the most popular man on earth for that day"

"I didn't even know how to defend punches" - Gable, describing his skill level when first training with Jones

Jones sends Gable video breakdowns of UFC fighters, teaching him to study tendencies: "Watch how he steps. Watch when he throws a punch, how he comes back and he doesn't reset this certain way"

One week before fighting Stipe Miocic, Jones was sick but "went out there, nobody could touch him" during five rounds of sparring with high-level PFL and ex-UFC fighters

Never Watching Film: Gable's Unorthodox Approach

"Even in Olympics, I never watched anyone wrestle. I never watched their film. I told coaches, don't show me one video" - Gable

His reasoning: "If a guy had a great double leg, and I'm worried about stopping a double leg instead of doing my offense"

At the Olympics, Gable finally asked to see opponents: "Show me the guys I'm wrestling. And I said, let's do it. I said, it's me or you as do or die"

This contrasts sharply with John Jones's approach of extensive game planning and studying opponent tendencies for every fight

Seven Months to Knockout Power

Gable began hitting pads at age 21 with Billy Simon in a basement gym in Prior Lake, Minnesota, but serious striking training started only seven months before his recent fights

His dirty boxing match showcased a devastating left hook knockout followed by a takedown on the unconscious opponent, prompting Joe to text Dana White: "Everyone's fucked"

"That kind of speed is crazy. That kind of speed and incorporated with elite wrestling is crazy" - Joe on Gable's athletic gifts at 250 pounds

Gable's training philosophy: "I'm all ears. You can't go out there and think that you can do something without putting" in the work and being coachable

The Shallow Heavyweight Division

Joe identifies only four championship-caliber heavyweights: Tom Aspinall, Cyril Gane, John Jones, and potentially Francis Ngannou if he returns

"The heavyweight champion of the UFC is the baddest motherfucker on the planet" - Joe, emphasizing the prestige of the division

Tom Aspinall suffered serious eye damage from Cyril Gane fight, requiring multiple surgeries with next surgery scheduled mid-January 2025

Gable compares Tom Aspinall to Turkish wrestler Taha Akgul, whom he beat 8-0 at the Olympics: "I was in his face for that six minutes. And I feel like in that instance, that's when the tides change"

John Jones's Close Fights Explained

"The close fights that John had, they were really only close because John wasn't training" - Joe

Greg Jackson confirmed Jones barely showed up for the first Gustafsson fight, yet he gutted out a close decision by winning the final rounds with virtually no strength and conditioning

For the Gustafsson rematch, Jones trained properly and "blows him out. Smokes him. Which is what you expect"

Jones developed a spinning back kick specifically for heavyweight competition, training it constantly with kickboxing coach Alex, culminating in the Stipe Miocic knockout

Mike Tyson's Unique Speed Advantage

"When Mike was in his prime, he was so fast. You could see guys trying to calculate and calibrate because it was different" - Joe

Tyson possessed "the speed of a lighter person in the frame of a heavyweight" - an extraordinary gift that Gable also demonstrates

The peekaboo style made Tyson impossible to prepare for: "You got most of these heavyweight boxers standing straight up, but Mike Tyson was crouching and bobbing and weaving and coming at you"

Tyson's prime fights were "all executions" rather than competitive bouts, with celebrity attendance at Madison Square Garden making each event a cultural phenomenon

The Eye Poke Epidemic in MMA

Joe advocates for immediate one or two-point deductions for every eye poke: "You should never do that to a person. Never"

Pyotr Yan fights with closed fists to prevent eye pokes: "His hand is in a fist. So when he's got his hand up like this and the front hand is extended, he's not doing that"

Cyril Gane poked Tom Aspinall's eyes approximately five times during their fight, with fingers outstretched toward the face repeatedly

Joe proposes mitten-style gloves covering fingertips: "Why don't they have it like one of those Everlast bag gloves? Have the thumb out because you don't grapple with these anyway"

Excellence Over Fame: Protecting Your Focus

"Think of the attention that you have like it has a number value. You have 100 units of focus. Any focus on other shit outside of the thing that brings you excellence is just robbing from excellence" - Joe

Joe warns about Hollywood's impact on fighters, citing Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor as examples of careers affected by commercial distractions

One Pride fighter had a girlfriend who would start fights the day before his bouts, stealing his focus: "She wanted him to fail. She wanted to be more important than his fighting career"

"Once you're favored by God, you're also favored by the devil" - Mike Tyson quote that Gable references about temptations accompanying success

Terrence Crawford's $100 Million Demand

Crawford earned $50 million for his first fight with Canelo Alvarez and won't return unless paid $100 million for a rematch

Crawford was stripped of his title over unpaid $300,000 sanctioning fees, which both Joe and Gable found absurd given his dominance

"That belt doesn't mean jack shit when it's Terrence Crawford. He won. Fuck off" - Joe on sanctioning body politics

Crawford went from 147 pounds to 168 pounds, with one fight at 154, demonstrating exceptional skill across weight classes against Canelo

Overdose Deaths Plummet Under Trump

Data shows overdose deaths dropped dramatically from 2024 into 2025, with the sharpest decline occurring after Trump took office

The decline correlates with aggressive action against drug trafficking, including blowing up Venezuelan ships bringing drugs into the country

Fentanyl contamination remains the primary killer: "It's smaller than a penny and you're dead. And people are snorting lines of it"

Cartels mix fentanyl with other drugs to enhance effects, leading to deaths from fake Xanax, Cocaine, and other substances people believe are pure

Cocaine Cowboys and Miami's Dark History

During the 1980s Cocaine era, one entire graduating class of Miami police academy either wound up murdered or in jail due to corruption

Miami had more banks per capita than any other U.S. city because they were laundering Cocaine money: "Cocaine built Miami"

The documentary refref-book-cocaine-built-miamiCocaine Cowboys reveals pilots buried millions of dollars in garbage bags in their backyards because they had too much cash

Ed Calderon, former Mexican military and cartel expert, has shared stories about the enormous wealth and power cartels maintain today

The Gulf of Tonkin and False Flags

The Gulf of Tonkin incident that justified U.S. entry into Vietnam was fake: "They faked it. It's not real. It's called a false flag"

"A lot of people died for nothing. And a lot of people made a lot of fucking money" - Joe on Vietnam War profiteering

Heroin production increased after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, with military personnel guarding poppy fields for farmers

Geraldo Rivera interviewed military personnel on Fox News about guarding Afghan poppy fields, revealing uncomfortable truths about the drug trade's role in foreign policy

Gable's White House Debut Plan

"I would really like to debut at the White House" - Gable on his ideal UFC entrance, wanting one or two more fights before signing

John Jones has told Gable he wants to be the main event at the White House with Gable fighting on the same card: "He wants me to be a couple slots behind him and kind of have us both win"

Gable's long-term goal: "I'd like to be champion, UFC champion. I think Stipe has it with five defenses. I would like to beat that"

"I played in the NFL, I won the Olympics. I would just like to be just an overall good man" - Gable on prioritizing character over championships