UFC veteran Matt Brown has encouraged heavyweight prospect Gable Steveson to leave Jon Jones and find someone else to coach him.
Steveson was shockingly defeated by Sean Sharaf on the UFC 331 main card this past Saturday in the biggest upset in UFC history, based on the odds.
Following the bout, Steveson left the cage immediately instead of waiting to see Sharaf get his hand raised, which is a faux pas in the sport. Jones later took the fall for that decision, saying it was his call to leave the cage early.
Regardless of that incident, Brown believes that Jones is not the right person to be teaching Steveson, and he is encouraging him to find a new camp.
Matt Brown Tells Gable Steveson to Leave Jon Jones
Speaking on “The Fighter vs. The Writer,” Brown suggested that Steveson leave Jones if he truly wants to reach his potential in MMA.
“I’m not just going to concede I was wrong. He got caught and he got knocked out. That’s not the end of it. George St-Pierre got knocked out. (Demetrious Johnson lost), everybody lost. Don’t act like this isn’t MMA yet. But the whole week, it brought up a lot of questions about Gable. To me as an outsider looking in … going to the arena with Jon Jones, driving down Hollywood Boulevard in a Mercedes or Rolls Royce or whatever it was. Kind of expecting to win. A little bit cocky — it’s OK to be a little bit cocky but it really felt like … it doesn’t feel like Jon Jones is the right guy to be coaching him and to be guiding him through this shit. His responses to a lot of the negativity coming his way were absolutely terrible. Worded terribly, spoken terribly,” Brown said.
“If Gable has the hunger, the motivation to really do this — he was in WWE and then NFL so is MMA just another shot? Is he just throwing darts at the board? Maybe he quits after this. But if he really has the hunger and motivation, I’m still on the same train. He’s going to smash everybody, and one day, he’ll probably rematch Sean Sharaf and he’ll smash him, too. I think he’s unstoppable if he has the right hunger and motivation and then I have to question the coaching. He’s got to have the right coaching. Jon Jones trying to teach him to be Jon Jones is not the way.”
Gable Steveson Can Bounce Back
Despite suffering such a brutal loss to Sharaf, Steveson can still bounce back because he is a heck of a talented athlete with incredible wrestling skills and the will to be great in athletics.
But he clearly has a lot of work to do if he is ever going to reach his potential in mixed martial arts.
Can he reach that potential with Jones as his coach? It’s hard to say. But he clearly has a lot to work on if he’s going to become a contender at heavyweight.
UFC Veteran Encourages Gable Steveson to Leave Jon Jones