This past weekend, the octagon traveled to the west coast when UFC 331 was hosted at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles with nearly 20,000 fans in attendance, headlined by the rematch of Joshua Van vs .Alexandre Pantoja for the Featherweight championship. Van won the title late last year when a fluke arm injury to Pantoja less than thirty seconds into the first round prompted the referee to stop the fight. The previously undefeated Pantoja lost the belt, but certainly wasn’t beaten for the title so there was a level of anticipation among purists, as the match-up was solid of paper, but didn’t offer the star power usually associated with a UFC pay-per-view main event.
The UFC 331 card was much of the same way, it was going to offer substance in terms of fight action, but didn’t have the sizzle of the big names in the featured slots. Thankfully, the line-up delivered three highlight reel KOs in a row between decisions on the scorecards, with the very entertaining slugfest between Alonzo Menifield and Iwo Baraniewski as the opener, and then Pantoja vs. Van was an all action main event. After Van won the belt via injury stoppage, he defended the title against Tatsuro Taira via TKO in the fifth round this past May, but there was still unfinished business with Pantoja. Van won a very competitive fight with a unanimous decision on the scorecards, and given the nature of the first contest combined with the quality of this main event, there’s a case to be made for a trilogy fight between the two featherweights.
Van and Pantoja went back and fourth, with the advantage tilting throughout 25 minutes, depending on your perspective. There’s no specific formula for when or how someone can make themselves a star in mixed martial arts,. but this victory could be a career-defining moment for Joshua Van in the grand scheme of things.
While Van and Pantoja put in a gritty 25 minutes in what could boost their profiles among fight fans, it took just 12 seconds for one of the under card fighters to potentially sour the audience on him as a competitor in the UFC.
Gable Stevenson, former Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling from the 2020 Tokyo games, was knocked out in just 12 seconds, one of the quickest finishes in the history of the UFC, with a vicious right hook from underdog opponent, Sean Sharaf, a heavyweight with a pro record of 4-2 prior to Saturday.
Despite his extensive collegiate and Olympic accomplishments, for whatever reason, the former four-time Big Ten Conference champion has struggled to translate those mat skills to the pro ranks in any form or fashion. As we know, he signed a Next in Line deal with the WWE, inking a contract with the organization in 2021 while he still had a year of eligibility left at the University of Minnesota. His WWE tenure was sporadic and rather underwhelming. Granted, the transition to the scripted world of pro wrestling where cooperation is key rather than the strict competition of the amateur mat is difficult, but with the accolades that he had fresh off of the victory in Tokyo, he either had to make the adjustment on a curved scale so that the office could capitalize of his medal status, or he would have to move onto the next venture. It’s a harsh reality, but when you have that type of natural athletic ability, there’s simply no reason that the WWE is going to monitor his progress or lack thereof when he’s at the Performance Center, a facility with some of the best trainers in the world, the same way that they are going to track the progress of a bodybuilder that started from scratch. The WWE simply didn’t have the time to invest years into getting Gable ready for WWE TV when his skills should’ve made up the difference, and there was no guarantee that everything would eventually click for him as a sports entertainer. Keep in mind, Steveson signed a solid contract since he had other offers on the table at the time when he was fresh off of the Olympic win. He had a few cameos, and and a horrendous match with Baron Corbin in NXT. He was released from the company in 2024, which would’ve had more to do with his lack of progress at the Performance Center than any individual cameo or match.
Following his WWE exit, he tried to get a spot with the Buffalo Bills, despite not playing football in college because of his commitment to the wrestling program at Minnesota, but was cut by the NFL squad before the start of the season. In 2025, he began a career in mixed martial arts, fighting on the regional circuit as a pro without any prior amateur MMA experience for his first three career bouts. He debuted in the UFC this past July when he finished the virtually unknown Elisha Ellison in the first round. Clearly, UFC management saw the potential to make the former Olympic champion a star, and it makes business sense, when he was back in the octagon just a few months later for UFC 331 on pay-per-view.
Sean Sharaf, who had a UFC record of 0-2 before he stepped into the cage against Steveson this past Saturday, was another virtually unknown opponent, but that’s not to say that UFC management was trying to protect Gable, mostly because the margin for error in the heavyweight division is very slim, which was proven by the quick result. Again, Steveson had no amateur fights so the UFC paired him with someone of a comparable experience level. Taking into account that Sharaf was winless in the promotion before this, it’s possible that he was fighting for his job. Steveson was the name, and ultimately, the narrative of the bout was based on how he would continue to develop as a fighter after a successful debut.
It’s not the knockout loss that will damage Steveson’s marketability, everyone knows that it only takes one punch, especially in the heavyweight division, but rather how Steveson handled the defeat. Despite getting knocked out, Gable appeared to be coherent and recovered after the fight was stopped. Instead of staying in the cage while the result was announced to congratulate his opponent, he left the octagon immediately, garnering boos from the crowd.
Rocky proved that you don’t have to win the fight to make fans. The audience knows that anyone can get caught with a punch. The lack of humility and grace in defeat does absolutely nothing to make the fans want to see him fight again, specifically because his skills alone won’t draw the crowd. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Steveson will get cut from the roster unless he proves to be completely non-competitive in the division on a long-term basis, but given the way that he left the cage because he lost the fight, it doesn’t give the UFC hype machine much to work with in terms of promoting his next bout.
I could be wrong, but taking into account that his skills are more or less completely one dimensional, and that at least right now, he’s a novice striker at best, I’m guessing this will be a scenario where Steveson is not going to be well-rounded enough to develop into a competitive MMA fighter. Furthermore, he had legal issues and assault accusations made against him in 2019 that weren’t pursued by law enforcement due to “lack of evidence” so it’s not as though it would be easy for the general public to rally behind him to begin with. The assault allegations weren’t proven or unproven so it left somewhat of a gray area in terms of public opinion. Regardless of the viewpoint of that situation, it’s much easier to see why the fans wouldn’t get behind a sore loser, especially because a lack of heart in the fight game is much more detrimental to fanfare than the loss itself.
As I said, I could see Steveson’s UFC tenure eventually fizzling out. He debuted for Real American Freestyle earlier this year, with two wins so far, and all things considered, as long as freestyle wrestling can bring him a decent payday, he should probably stay in that sport since his skill haven’t transferred to other genres within the sports industry.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
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