Gable Steveson isn't trying to rush things, but he does want the UFC heavyweight title ASAP.

Only 26 years old and an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, Steveson is one of the most-hyped MMA prospects of all time. After trying his hand at football and professional wrestling, Steveson moved to MMA in 2025, immediately showcasing rare athleticism and talent that left many fans wondering when — not if — Steveson would move to the UFC and take the heavyweight title.

Steveson fulfilled the former earlier this year, making his promotional debut at UFC 329 with a first-round TKO over Elisha Ellison, and if he had his druthers, the latter would be sooner rather than later.

“I would like to say as fast as possible, but I would like to get my reps in, make sure the people know I earned my respect, and earned my time in the octagon,†Steveson told reporters at the RAF 12 press conference when asked how soon he wants to challenge for the heavyweight title. “And when that time comes, I'll most definitely be ready.â€

Speaking with MMA Fighting after the press conference, Steveson went into more detail about his plans for working his way to the title, and how his work with Jon Jones expedited his personal timeline.

“I think my progression has been great,†Steveson said. “I think with Jon and a lot of guys in my corner, the progression has been faster than we thought. And obviously, with my last fight I introduced my kicks; I introduced knees this time. My next fight I'll introduce something else and just keep building off that.

“I think however long it takes is what means most to me. Whether it's eight fights, whether it's five fights, whether it's four, whether it's six, it doesn't really matter. I come out there to compete. My goal right now is to earn the respect of the fans, earn the respect of the people, the higher-ups, earn the respect of myself to go out there and compete in these matchups that may seem a little off, but it's part of the game. You've got to build the respect with the team and build the respect within yourself, and honor the cage, and get your reps in.

“So, I'm getting my reps in now. When that time comes to jump — which will be very soon — I'll jump.â€

First thing first, though, Steveson already has his next UFC fight booked, taking on Sean Sharaf next month at UFC 331, and he's hoping to keep this high rate of activity up. He aims to return with a fight at Madison Square Garden before the end of the year.

“I'm happy about this,†Steveson said of the matchup. “I'm the one who chose to fight again early. I could have fought at MSG and waited through that time, but I wanted to be competitive and wrestle, and then fight again, and then fight again after that. With my opponent, Sean Sharaf, a big guy who's not really mobile, can't really top a takedown, who wants to go out there and brawl and eat a lot of punches — I expect him to come out there the best he possibly can, but I feel like there's no avenue for him to even compete.â€

UFC 330 saw Islam Makhachev make history, winning his 17th fight in a row, to break Anderson Silva's record. Oh, he also beat Ian Machado Garry to defend his welterweight title to do so. After the fight, Makhachev said he was targeting 20 consecutive wins, a mark that would be nigh unbeatable. But should he?

Islam seems sensible enough to know when to call it a day and retire. In an ideal world, how many more fights should he take and against whom?

The honest answer is that he should continue fighting for as long as he either wants to or is capable of doing so at a high level. Many fans won't agree, but retiring to preserve a résumé is weak sauce. If he still loves fighting and can still fight, he should keep fighting until such time as one of those two things changes.

But if you are looking at Makhachev's career through the most cynical lens possible and only focused on maximizing legacy and minimizing risk, he should probably fight one more time and then hang up the gloves.

I do not care for Jon Jones, and when he was doing the whole tortured heavyweight title reign, I hated every bit of it. I felt it was a transparently opportunistic farce, and had no respect for it. BUT, I said from the very beginning and have never once changed my mind that it was smart prize fighting.

Waiting until Francis Ngannou left the UFC to move up is just smart. Defending the title against the shell of a former champion is smart. Trying to fight a smaller man who you have a huge stylistic advantage over instead of a bigger, stronger, younger opponent is smart. The man was picking his battles to minimize risk and maximize gain, and in 20 years, most people won't remember that he ducked Tom Aspinall. They'll just see that he was a two-division champion.

Makhachev is in a similar position right now. Not in that his second title run is a farce — far from it, he's the only good double champion in UFC history — but that he can pick and choose his spots, if he wants to. Carlos Prates is a legitimate opponent for Makhachev, but he also appears to be a good matchup for him. Morales, not as much. So if Makhachev beats Prates, the safest course of action would be to then walk away, having done something no one else has done in the men's weight classes (multiple defenses in multiple weight classes) and never run the risk of fighting the younger, stronger challenger.

But if he does stick around and add two more, then his GOAT case becomes extremely strong. So that's sort of the question he has to answer: do you want to try to become a special level of legendary at the risk of losing some of your luster, or quit while you're ahead?

A smart man would choose the latter. Las Vegas is built on men chasing the dragon one too many times, and for as great as Makhachev is, I don't think his target of 20 consecutive wins is achievable. But if he does pull it off, then he probably is just the GOAT. And that's a lot of temptation.

Did you leave UFC 330 more or less convinced either Prates or Morales knocks Makhachev out in his next fight?

Neither. I never thought Prates would, and I still don't. Morales is a total question mark for me, and remains so.

After thinking about this for several days, my biggest takeaway from UFC 330 is not pretty boring: Ian Garry was a horrible style matchup for Islam to look good against. Garry is a defense-first fighter, and considerably larger than Makhachev. There's just no real way to excel against him. If Garry opened up his offense more, that would open up more opportunities for Islam, but he didn't, so we got the fight we got.

Really, the only thing I take from that fight is that Makhachev is still crazy strong at this weight class, even if he's undersized. I still don't think Prates can grapple with him, and that's means he wins. As for Morales, we can all imagine how Morales wins, but we've also never seen him fight a great defensive fighter, or really lose a phase of a fight at all. It's unlikely he bombs Islam out like he did Sean Brady, so how does he react when he's not just the hammer? There are still a ton of questions for Morales.

Is Dern actually as good as she looked in the first two rounds or is Strawweight this bad? Oh how I miss the days of Joanna, Rose pre-Esparza debacle, and peak Weili. Perhaps I'm just too jaded, but 115 feels almost as meh as 135 once you get past Kline and Thainara.

Welcome to the Mackenzie Dern experience!

Seriously, this is who Dern is, and it's why I love her. For stretches of a fight, she looks like a world-beater, and you can understand how she was once the greatest BJJ player in the world. Then for other stretches she looks like she'd get thumped by a random lady in a Wal-Mart parking lot fight. She's the physical embodiment of the Dril Tweet about how there is no difference between good and bad.

But as to your other point, you're not jaded: 115 used to be better. All of women's MMA is in a down period right now, even 115. Granted, it's not as bad as 135, and we do have some young talent emerging, but the weight class is in transition right now. Honestly, it might be better if Zhang Weili didn't come back and simply let strawweight work through this period until Kline can get the title. Otherwise, she'll come back and reclaim the belt, and then Kline will lose, and we'll be stuck here for even longer.

(non-330 related) What is the optimal night for MVPFL: Should they consider Sunday nights instead of Friday?

Back in the day, WWF/WWE had their PPV's on Sunday nights and did well. MVPFL might do better on a slow Sunday evening as a UFC dessert than on a Friday night as a UFC appetizer. People go out more on Fri nights as well. Or do you think another night would be better?

I can't speak to the success of WWE on Sunday nights, but Sunday would be a terrible idea. For one thing, Sunday is a school night. People have to get up early on Monday morning to go to school or work, and they usually don't want to stay up until midnight or later. Even for UFC White House, this was a legitimate problem, with people texting me that they weren't staying up for this.

The other issue with Sunday is that MVPFL is courting the American audience, and for half of the year, Sunday Night Football would counter-program them in the worst way.

The answer is Friday night. It's not perfect, but Saturdays are taken. You can't have Saturdays. But Friday is still a weekend night, and you have no real opposition for American viewing audiences. Friday Night Fights with MVPFL. Just do it.

Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who sent in questions! Do you have any burning questions about things at least somewhat related to combat sports? Then you're in luck, because every week I put a prompt into The Feed for your questions. Fire them there, and I'll answer the best ones in the Mailbag and try to get to the rest in the responses.

Lerryan Douglas enters the UFC cage for a second time Saturday night in Sacramento, facing off with Jamall Emmers after flooring Julian Erosa in brutal fashion in his debut this past March, and feels better prepared and more motivated after working in the gym with vale tudo legend Marco Ruas.

Ruas is a longtime friend of Douglas' manager and his family and “an inspiration†for the featherweight talent, who was born five months before Ruas won the UFC 7 one-night tournament. Ruas beat Paul Varelans, Remco Pardoel and Larry Cureton that night in September of 1995, and 31 years later they're sharing the same mat in California.

“I'm always training, trying to get as much experience as possible from the veterans, from the real fighters,†Douglas told MMA Fighting. “It's been an incredible experience. I did several training sessions with him for this fight. He said, ‘Brother, you're ready. You're ready. Let's beat the hell out of this guy.' [laughs]â€

Ruas, 65, last fought under MMA rules in 2007 when he returned from a six-year hiatus for a rematch with Maurice Smith in IFL. “The King of the Streets†was one of the biggest names in the vale tudo scene back in the 1980's and 1990's, competing in World Vale Tudo, UFC and PRIDE.

“Just being able to train with the guy, talk to him, have him show me some techniques and different ways to do things, all of that is already extremely valuable to me,†Douglas said. “Just being around him, training with him, gives you that extra motivation. The legend, Marco, is telling me I'm ready, brother, there's no way I can't be. And if you're not ready, the guy is going to tell you. There's none of that with Marco. That's why I like the old school guys, there's no, ‘I'm going to protect this kid's ego.' With Marco, that's how it has to be. If you're not in good shape, if you're not doing well, he's going to tell you. He's not going to sugarcoat it or protect your ego. For me, that's good for my confidence. If he says I'm good, I'm ready, then I'm ready.â€

Douglas' octagon return is met with anticipation after a successful debut in March, and the 145-pound prospect says the hype from his fellow Brazilians “is motivation for me†ahead of his UFC Sacramento clash with Emmers. His opponent enters his 10th octagon appearances riding a two-fight winning streak over Gabriel Miranda and Hyder Amil in 2025.

“The guys are putting me up there, but I also know where I really stand,†Douglas said. “It's cool to see people supporting me, backing me and putting me up there. I've only had one fight in the UFC, but I've been fighting for a long time. I had my first professional fight when I was 18, and now I'm 31. It's been a long journey. Having people put me up there with those guys is cool for me, I enjoy that. I'm ready to embrace any opportunity that comes my way.â€

“My entire career has been like this,†he continued. “I've never had the option of taking an easier route. There's a good side to that and there's a bad side to it, but the path I followed was a little different, always fighting people at my level or above. That's how you gain experience, right? But for me, I'm cool. Whoever the UFC sends my way, I'll be ready.â€

“Gunslinger†Douglas is a former LFA champion who earned his spot in the UFC by finishing Cam Teague in just 36 seconds on Dana White's Contender Series in 2025, and welcomes facing â€more experienced guys†in the UFC.

“I keep gaining more experience as well until I reach the top, which is my goal,†Douglas said. “Jamall is a well-rounded guy. He can fight anywhere. I watched his last fight, him wrestling with the guy. In some fights he knocks guys out, in others he submits them, so he's a complete fighter. In the UFC, you're going to face guys like that. There won't be anyone incomplete in the UFC. But when they feel the pressure in a fight, guys change their game plans and everything changes, right? When I'm actually there, when it's fight time, we'll see. If he wants to bang, let's bang. If he wants to wrestle, I'm ready. And jiu-jitsu goes without saying. But I'm excited to get another submission or knockout.â€