Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day What's happening? Pleasure to meet you, man. How are you? Great. I'm great. When you got a name like Gable and you're named after Dan Gable and you go on to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling, that is kind of prophetic.
My mom, when I was young, she was trying to find names for me. And she liked Kale Sanderson because Kale was a guy at the time. But she was at a tournament in Iowa with my older brother. And she kept hearing Gable, Gable, Gable. And it was Dan Gable at the time. And, you know, Dan Gable was a huge figure in the Midwest for wrestling. And so she was like, why don't I name you Gable Dan?
And the rest was history, which is really crazy. Because his whole timeline is my timeline, which is fantastic. Except the MMA part.
Chapter 2: How did Gable Steveson's name influence his wrestling career?
That too.
Yeah.
Which I wish he would have done. I think he would have been amazing. I think he would have been amazing. But it wasn't around. I mean, when he was wrestling. Bare knuckle, maybe. I don't know. Do it on the street or something. Because.
He could have found a way. It's kind of fucked that there's no real professional outlet for actual wrestling.
It is fucked. And wrestling needs a real way to go out there and be something big. And I think they have a really good one now with RAF. If you haven't heard about it, it's American Freestyle. They're trying. And I think they're trying really well. And I think it's going to come to a point where... How do you make matchups continue?
Because, you know, wrestling gets to the point where, and fighting and a lot of other sports, you can get to the point where, you know, maybe you draft a guy. In fighting, there's a next big thing. There's a next guy out there that you can kind of create. And with wrestling, they're trying to create an atmosphere of how can you create that person.
And I like it, and I think it might work, and hopefully it keeps going the way it needs to go.
it would be interesting if it would the problem is mma is so huge now and people kind of associate wrestling with either mma or pro wrestling now like those are the two things that they think of and it's one i think it's one of those things like soccer where soccer should be huge in america it's huge all over the world right it's a very exciting sport but nope you know what's crazy how how popular soccer players are
And I feel like in America we have so many sports that, like, we can't hit that market for soccer. And I think that might be the biggest case why. Because if you go overseas, Ronaldo's paid $500 million. And if he scores a goal, he gets a million dollars a goal or something. So he's out here doing bicycle kicks.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does wrestling face in gaining popularity?
They got a couple fighters. But other than that, I think we're kind of at a halt with creating that big guy for America.
Well, it's just strange to me because wrestling itself is such an exciting sport. It really is very exciting to watch, and everybody understands it. It's not complicated.
Yeah. I really think everyone understands it to a certain extent. But they can learn the points and all the other stuff.
Have you wrestled? Yeah, wrestled in high school. How'd you do? Just one year. I was doing Taekwondo at the same time. Why just one year? Because I was doing Taekwondo and I couldn't do both of them at the same time. And I was pretty good at Taekwondo. You know what's crazy?
I think since you've done Taekwondo, maybe I should try. If you are such an athlete, you'd probably be awesome at it. I might be able to pull it off. I don't know if I can get to your level.
Well, you would figure it out, man. You'd figure it out. Are you flexible? It depends how and what are we doing? Well, you would get flexible. The thing is, a guy like you, you'd figure out how to get flexible. The flexibility thing drives me nuts because I've tried to show stuff to guys before, MMA fighters, and they're like, oh, I'm not flexible. I'm like, what does that mean?
What does that mean? This is not like you're not tall. You can get flexible. You just stretch. Okay, we can rewind now and I can say I am flexible. Okay.
I am flexible.
Well, you certainly could get flexible.
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Chapter 4: How does Gable balance wrestling and MMA training?
So I didn't know how to defend a punch. I didn't know how to defend a kick. I didn't know how to do anything. But I went in there and I said, hey, if you need somebody, it's got to be me. And that's how hungry I was. And I feel like that's how kids should be nowadays about getting that opportunity. Man, just be hungry because someone's going to respect you. Yeah, for sure.
But, I mean, not a whole lot of people get that opportunity. That's a crazy opportunity. It's also, like, John is an elite wrestler as well. And so, like, learning how to incorporate elite wrestling into all the other aspects of MMA and to be able to go right into camp with John is just... This is amazing.
Incredible opportunity. It's super incredible. I'm grateful for it every day. And especially he's still here in my corner to this day. We talked this morning. He's still giving me all the pointers, all the advice, even when we're not even fighting.
Just telling me how I should say things, what I should say, how I need to go about life, how I need to go about business and meeting people and greeting people. So it's a true opportunity. That's awesome. That's really awesome.
So when you were in camp with him, you're going through the camp. Were you planning on MMA then? Or, like, how does it work? Like, what were you thinking? Was it just, like, the moment you started training with him, is that when it really started the fire in you? Yes. I had a little bit of burn for it.
Like in the back of your mind. Yes, but a little burn, you got to have the heart. You got to have the heart. So kind of what was the stamp on it was I went to – I went to Madison Square Garden with him and John was just doing John things, you know, just being a superstar. Everybody knew who he was. And I was like, man, you know, I got an Olympic gold medal.
You know, like maybe I should be getting some too. Like, you know, like John showed me the way a little bit. So I'm trying to have him show me the way. He's bringing me to every place, meeting every person, you know, showing me the opportunities that he has. And he looks at me and he was like, you can have this too. And that was kind of the cherry on the top.
But we can put another cherry on the top and do a double one when he won the fight, and then I'm holding the belt with him. And, like, I see this guy face-to-face, and, you know, he's just the most popular man on earth for that day. And it's kind of like, wow, like, you don't really get to see the backstage moments. You get to see the guy go out there on TV and fight.
But I got to see the backstage of everyone taking the pictures with him, the superstars. You know, I'm walking out the Knicks game, and I see Queen Latifah, and I'm like, damn. That's Queen Latifah. And I'm taking a selfie with Queen Latifah. I'm like, yo, can I send this to my mom? And she's like, yeah, go ahead. And I see Fat Joe talking to him and everybody.
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Chapter 5: What mindset do successful fighters need to have?
But his mentality was... I want a guy who has no problems. Like, if I'm going to coach a guy, I don't want a guy who's a head case. I want a guy who goes in there and already has this, I'm going to fucking dominate. And if I don't, I'm going to learn why I didn't dominate, and I'm going to come back and I'm going to get him next time.
Yeah. And I feel like that's the person I am. I just want to go in there and dominate. And I also think that a lot of people kind of rely too much on a lot of outside things to kind of make them feel good about themselves to go out there and perform instead of just just putting that switch on and just saying, hey, we're here.
Outside things like what?
Like we just, you know, mental coaches, you know, someone you got to get someone else to be maybe a breath working coach or some another coach, another coach. There's so many labels for coaches out there that you don't need.
Chapter 6: How does Gable Steveson view the role of coaches in his training?
And when I was wrestling in Minnesota, I had Brandon Eggum, Luke Becker, who's the assistant and head coach, and Trevor Brambo. That's all I had. I didn't have nobody else because I didn't want anybody to interfere with the connection that we had. And I feel like when you get a great bond with somebody and then you bring in... More people, the bonds get mixed up.
People are paying attention to too many different things. Instead of practicing, maybe I got to work on my mind. Instead of working on my mind, maybe I got to go do something else. Maybe I got to take care of something else.
Sort of like when you were talking about not watching video on your opponents because you're thinking about his double, how am I going to stop his double, instead of thinking about what am I going to do.
Yeah, I would rather be productive for the team instead of productive for eight different people and maybe three of them don't care about you as much. You know, they're there just to get a little something from you. Right, right, right, right, right. Where are you training now? Right now I'm still in Minneapolis. I'm having a baby girl this Sunday. Oh, congratulations.
This Sunday my little girl is coming. I appreciate it. Thank you.
That's awesome.
She's going to pop out. My lady's hopefully going to deuce that day. If it comes early, it comes early. So that'll be really nice. So I'm in Minneapolis right now. But when I do all the main training, New Mexico, Jackson Wing. Okay. So in Minneapolis, where are you training? With that guy, Billy Simon. Same guy? Yeah. I've been with him forever. So you're in this little tiny gym?
I'm in that little gym. Nobody sees us. We got partners that need to come in. But rather than that, I don't want the big lights. When I was growing up in Portage, Indiana, I had a wrestling mat in the garage. And me and my two brothers would wrestle. And that's where we got the most work in.
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Chapter 7: What are the challenges of maintaining focus in a fighter's career?
My dad said, go in there and hand fight. And whoever comes out, comes out. And it was definitely not me at the time. But maybe right now it's me. But we would go in there and hand fight. My dad's philosophy was we had Iowa-style wrestling. And Iowa-style wrestling was brutal. If his face needs to be run into the wall, run his face into the wall. And that's how we grew up.
And if you don't want your face ran into the wall, you better put his in first.
Right. And so when you train with this guy, are you training like I could get a call in a week to fight and I'm ready to do that? Or are you training like just like developing skills constantly?
I just religiously train to develop skills constantly. I try to never stop. I don't like stopping because I'm kind of a... This is crazy. I'm a thicker body, so if I sit for a little bit, I feel like I'm getting fat. And I want to feel that way. So I just try to always keep myself in shape and try to keep the best look possible.
So if you need me on one week, which I don't want to do any short notice, just how me and John do it, no short notice. Like, if you need me in a week, I look good, I'm ready. But... We just take our time.
So did John coach you about that? Like give you some thoughts about that? Because I think that's a giant mistake that guys make. And like the Alexander Volkanovsky fight is a good example. The Islam Makachev fight. He took that fight on 11 days notice. He's just been hanging around, drinking, partying. Just being himself. Just chilling.
And then all of a sudden he gets this opportunity for a rematch. First fight was razor thin decision. He lost. And he's like, I can do better.
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Chapter 8: What goals does Gable Steveson have for his future in MMA?
But yeah. You can't do better without a camp. You've got to have time to be yourself. Yeah. You have to have time to peak. And one of the things I really always admired about John is even a fight, like the Chael Sonnen fight, they offered him Chael Sonnen on short notice. He was like, nope, nope. And they're like, we need you to do this. He's like, nope, nope. I'm a professional world champion.
I prepare for my opponents. And I don't want to fight unless I'm prepared for my opponent. Period. It's the smartest way. Look at him. He's the GOAT. He is. I mean, it's just so many guys. And I do appreciate that Alex does take those short breaks.
notice fights and he wins some of those short notice fights but how many times he's fought injured like really injured like the first Yuri Prokofiev fight he had a fucked up knee man and when he stopped Yuri there's a moment when he's on top of Yuri and he's beating on him and the referee stops it and he goes to step up and he rolls off of him the reason he rolled off of him he couldn't support himself on his knee that's how fucked up his knee was and he was in a world title fight
It's bad. Crazy. Well, I feel like this is the only sport where they would let that happen. Just because football, you sit on IR. Yes. We don't have no IR. Right. It's either you do it or you say no. Right. And if you say no, they get upset at you. A lot of people get timid.
Yeah.
And I mean, once you get past that barrier of, I think right now, since I'm going to have this daughter, I think my tone and mindset has changed to kind of really be more of a a father figure for her, but also for, like, if kids want to look at me and be like, wow, you know, Gable's normal also. But I think just you've got to say no to a lot of people.
You've got to be generous in a lot of ways, but you've also got to be able to go out there and say, I don't like this. I don't feel this way about this, and this is why. And be cool on both sides. But some people get scared about that moment. Are you doing – what kind of strength and conditioning are you doing? So I still lift with the college team, so everything they do with wrestling.
The college wrestling team? Yes. Everything they do at the University of Minnesota, I still do. I still got the same strength coach with them. Bike sprints, airdyne sprints, watt bike, versaclimbers, everything. We try to mix it in all, rowers, everything, just to stay active. And if it's not where we're getting close to a fight,
Just maybe just take longer breaks in between just to keep the heart rate up. But I don't like when my heart rate takes a break. I like to kind of keep it consistent. So when I ramp up, it's already ready to rock and roll.
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