Gable Steveson advised to take a year out of UFC action by former double champion: ‘Respect the game’

Henry Cejudo thinks Gable Steveson needs to respect the sport of MMA a bit more.

This past Saturday, Gable Steveson returned to the Octagon for just the second time when he took on Sean Sharaf on the UFC 331 main card in Los Angeles, California.

Despite the hype and excitement surrounding the 26-year-old, he suffered one of the biggest upsets in UFC history when Sharaf scored a knockout in just 12 seconds.

And after suffering such a shocking loss, it is currently unclear what the Olympic gold medalist’s first steps will be in handling the first loss of his short MMA career.

Sean Sharaf knocked out the Olympic gold medalist in 12 seconds.

With such a high ceiling in combat sports, Steveson has been backed to come back emphatically by UFC legend, Chael Sonnen, who compared his recent loss to the loss Islam Makhachev suffered early in his UFC tenure.

Despite that, former UFC double champion and Olympic gold medalist Henry Cejudo is less optimistic about the 26-year-old’s immediate future in the sport, and he has advised the American to take a year out of MMA to work on his striking defense.

Having trained wrestling for the majority of his life, Steveson has only been training MMA since late 2024, and although he has come on leaps and bounds, he still has glaring holes in his striking game.

“To me, I’m not surprised (Steveson got knocked out) and I hate to say this, bro,” Cejudo said on the recent episode of the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.

“You cannot hurry up in this game, dude, and I hope Bo Nickal can also see this s— too. Like man, you’ve got to be able to respect the game, focus on MMA and just do that. My next thing for Gable Steveson and I’m gonna tell you right now, he needs to take a whole f—— year and get better defensively.

“Because if you’re just gonna strike, then just strike for one full year, you’re still young, forget about anything else you’re doing with matches and grappling and all this other stuff, if your plan is to be the best in the world, forget about all of that and focus on your striking and focus on your defense.

“That chin, bro, when it’s touched, it’s gonna go, man,” Cejudo continued.

Almost immediately after the fight, UFC commentator Joe Rogan shared his reaction, claiming that Steveson let the ‘hype get to his head’.

According to Rogan, Steveson was way too flat-footed as he thought he ‘couldn’t be beaten’, hoping he would continue his air of invincibility.