Gable Steveson walked into Crypto.com Arena as a 4-0 heavyweight prospect, an Olympic gold medalist and a roughly minus-2400 favorite. Twelve seconds later he was unconscious.
How It Ended
Steveson opened with a leg kick and reached out to parry. Sean Sharaf looped a left hook over the top, landed flush, and followed with shots as Steveson fell. Referee stoppage at 12 seconds of round one.
It is the third-fastest heavyweight knockout in UFC history. Sharaf entered as a +1000 underdog, which Yahoo Sports called the biggest UFC betting upset ever at DraftKings.
The fight was the second bout on the UFC 331 main card, not a prelim, after being promoted up during fight week when Moicano vs. Ortega 2 was cancelled.
Who Sean Sharaf Is
Sharaf is 33, a former United States Marine who says he lost 70 pounds to enlist. He fights out of Santa Ana and trains at Xtreme Couture, and he sparred with Michael Bisping, Sean Strickland and Luke Rockhold as an amateur.
He signed with the UFC in 2024 at 4-0 with all first-round finishes, then lost his first two UFC fights by TKO to Junior Tafa and Steven Asplund. He entered Saturday 0-2 in the promotion at 4-2 overall.
“I’m not surprised,” Sharaf said in the cage. “I feel amazing. I worked so hard, I prayed so hard. Believed in myself when nobody believed in myself.”
At the press conference he was funnier: “I told you the game plan was hit, don’t get hit, leave with a bag full of cash. Everyone thought I was joking.”
He also had grace for Steveson. “I think he’s going to go back, he’s going to get better. He’s got a hell of a lot of talent, so I’m sure you guys will see him again.”
Sharaf received the one-off MobLand Bonus, announced at $50,000 and matched by Dana White to $100,000.
Steveson Has Now Failed at Three Sports
This is the part that is hard to write and harder to ignore.
Steveson won Olympic gold at 125 kilograms in freestyle wrestling at the Tokyo Games, beating Geno Petriashvili with a takedown in the final half-second, the first American super-heavyweight freestyle gold since Bruce Baumgartner in 1992. He was a two-time NCAA champion at Minnesota, two-time Hodge Trophy winner and went 103-3.
WWE signed him in September 2021 and released him in May 2024 after one real match. The Buffalo Bills gave him a three-year deal in May 2024 to play defensive line despite him never having played football, and released him that August without a regular-season appearance.
MMA was supposed to be the one that stuck. He was 4-0 with four first-round finishes, including a knockout of Elisha Ellison in his UFC debut at UFC 329 in July. Now he is 4-1.
Dana White Shrugged
“Anything is possible when two guys get in there and start fighting,” White said afterward. “When you’re in that position, obviously, he had huge expectations on himself, and it happens. Forrest Griffin ran out of the Octagon when he won the fight. These things happen.”
Steveson left the Octagon before the result was announced and has not spoken publicly. His manager Abe Kawa posted a defense on Instagram listing fighters who lost early and recovered, ending with a line about standing by their guy.
The Honest Take
Twelve seconds is not a referee stoppage you can argue with, a bad matchup or a fluke of positioning. It is a heavyweight reaching out to parry a kick and getting hit by the punch that was always coming over the top.
Steveson is 26 and one of the best wrestlers this country has produced. He also has 4 minutes and change of total professional fighting experience against real opposition. The wrestling does not transfer if you cannot see the left hook.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.