Olympian and Jon Jones' UFC 309 training partner Gable Steveson gets brutally honest about failed WWE and NFL stints: "It just wasn't the right thing"

Gable Steveson recently became candid about his unsuccessful tenure with the WWE and NFL. Steveson asserted that he found it extremely challenging to concentrate on two things at once. The Olympian added that he is ready to return to square one to restart his career.

Steveson won the gold medal in men's freestyle wrestling, becoming the youngest person to accomplish so in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. After gaining significant social media traction, the 24-year-old signed with WWE the following year, fulfilling a childhood goal.

However, things didn't go his way, as the American wrestler was released by WWE this past May. During a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, Steveson discussed his exit from the promotion, claiming that he couldn't focus on two things simultaneously.

He said:

''When I got to WWE, everything was great, and everything went great the whole time. It just wasn't the right time. After I signed with WWE, I tried to go back to wrestle [in the amateurs], and you can't consistently do one foot in, one foot out of everything. As later time had gone on, it just wasn't the right thing and I wanted to keep wrestling and keep going in that direction. WWE had a different direction.''

After leaving WWE, Steveson signed with the Buffalo Bills to try his hand at the NFL, but he was cut loose in August before the team's first preseason game. Reflecting on his failures, Stevenson added:

''Of course there's going to be disappointment. I feel like I could have done so much more in the business and I could have lasted a really long time...So there's no problem with it, I'm good to go. I'm going through college wrestling again and restarting everything and getting back to where I was."

Check out Gable Steveson's comments below (4:06):

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Gable Steveson hints at pursuing an MMA career

After fruitless stints with the NFL and WWE, Gable Steveson, an Olympic wrestling champion, is eager to try his hand at mixed martial arts.

Notably, Steveson trained with Jon Jones before the latter's heavyweight title fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. In the aforementioned interview with Ariel Helwani, the 24-year-old stated that sparring with 'Bones' has motivated him to seek a career inside the octagon:

''I’ve dipped and dabbed in MMA for a while now. After being in that camp with Jon Jones, that definitely put a major spark in me to go out there and do MMA. Not sure the promotion yet, but Jon definitely lit a fire under me...With the wrestling, with the boxing work, with the jiu-jitsu, I feel like I could be very good really quick'' [27:54]

Jones even hailed Steveson as a future heavyweight champion.