Gable Steveson Gets Absolutely Torched by Fans After Cold Jon Jones-Inspired UFC 331 Gesture

The former Olympic gold medalist arrived in the promotion with enormous wrestling credentials, but his UFC journey has already been marked by plenty of noise outside the Octagon. That noise followed him into UFC 331 fight week.

After his UFC 331 opponent Sean Sharaf confronted Steveson over allegations stemming from a 2019 incident during the pre-fight press conference, the tension between the two heavyweights was evident, yet when the two met for the ceremonial weigh-in faceoff, the Olympian appeared to have no interest in giving "The Smoke" any more attention than necessary.

Gable Steveson Emulates Jon Jones 

Instead, the 26-year-old pulled out a move made famous by his mentor, Jon Jones. Rather than stare Sharaf down, the 26-year-old deliberately looked away. It was a cold, calculated gesture, a remnant of Jones' faceoff with Ryan Bader, Alexander Gustafsson, etc. 

“It’s just normal Jon Jones protocol,” Steveson said after the weigh-ins. “We want our opponent to earn our respect and Sean hasn’t earned our respect in any aspect of anything. It’s nothing personal. It just has to happen now.”

Steveson later explained that refusing to engage took some of the meaning out of the traditional staredown, saying, “You’re expecting someone to come out there and really look you in the eye and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to beat you.’ By us looking away, we’re taking away all the credibility of even having that interaction so tomorrow we’ll figure it out.”

For Steveson, it was seemingly another lesson picked up from "Bones." For the UFC audience, however, the reaction was anything but unanimous.

UFC Fans Aren’t Buying the Jon Jones Act

The hate was evident from the crowd. As soon as Steveson walked in with his mentor, the crowd started raining down boobirds, some fans even flipping the heavyweight off with explicit language and gestures, then came the Minnesota-native's Jones-inspired faceoff. Instead of earning Steveson praise for the calculated move, several fans used the moment to unload on the heavyweight prospect.

One online fan suggested Steveson should simply embrace the role that appears to be developing around him. “Gable will be a villain his entire career. Better to accept it now,” the fan wrote. Meanwhile, another compared Steveson to Jones in a far less flattering way, writing, “Much like Jon he’s insecure.”

Others were less interested in the staredown itself and more focused on the atmosphere surrounding Steveson and Sharaf. One fan even wondered about an apparent exchange involving UFC CEO Dana White and Sharaf before adding, “Wonder what he said to him.” A fourth netizen simply responded, “Yea get mad," referring to the youngster's reaction to the crowd. 

But some of the reactions crossed well beyond criticism of Steveson’s fight persona, with fans bringing up the 2019 allegations and performance-enhancing-drug accusations in particularly harsh terms. “Ohh look! It’s a rapists and a PED Cheat T-bone bandit!” one fan wrote, while another posted, “A rapist and a cheating dope head. Yep no wonder they both get along so great.”

For the unversed, those comments are allegations and insults from individual fans, not established findings of fact. Steveson was not charged over the 2019 allegations, but the issue resurfaced publicly when Sharaf confronted him about it during fight week.