Henry Cejudo has high praise for reigning Olympic 125kg gold medal wrestling champion, Gable Steveson.
Since the win, Steveson has been meeting with the UFC, WWE, and Bellator as he looks to see what is next. Cejudo, who also won Olympic gold in wrestling, says he has talked to Steveson and has been giving him pointers on how to decide what to do.
However, for Cejudo, he doesn’t think the UFC can afford what Steveson will want and deserves. With that, he thinks WWE is a very real possibility but for Cejudo, he thinks with the right training Steveson could beat Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones in a couple of years.
“The UFC can’t afford him,” Cejudo said to TMZ Sports. “I’m sorry, they can afford him but they’re not gonna pay him, unfortunately. I do believe in the next couple of years he could beat a guy like Jon Jones or even Francis Ngannou. He’s the biggest threat because of his wrestling base which is extremely scary…
“He’s a real heavyweight. If you were to put him in there right now, Jon Jones would hurt him, Francis Ngannou would hurt him. I’ve been there before,” Cejudo continued. “When I first fought Demetrious Johnson, I had already had standup and I got knocked out at 2 minutes and 36 seconds. So you do have to respect the game.”
Regardless of what Steveson does, Cejudo says the Olympic gold medalist just needs time. He knows if he goes to WWE he would be on a fast track to being a superstar. However, if he decides on MMA, he needs time to develop.
“What Gable Steveson needs right now, he needs time,” Cejudo said. “Whatever he decides to dedicate himself to, he needs two years, even for the WWE. He could probably fast-track the WWE because it’s stunts and it’s an act. But if he’s gonna go back to wrestling, he needs to go back immediately for amateur, Olympic-style wrestling. Or he’s gonna have to start training. I would go the Bellator route and maybe go to these smaller shows to build him up and then eventually take it to the UFC where they can put him against a top-five opponent right away and eventually fast-pace him to the title.”
