There’s a lot of hype around the UFC signing former Olympic wrestling gold medalist Gable Steveson at the moment, but Dana White has made it clear the 25-year-old won’t immediately be propelled into a major fight when he makes his promotional debut at UFC 329 in Las Vegas on July 11th.

“CM Punk fought here – we’ll find somebody,” White said at the UFC Fight Night 273 post-fight press conference when asked about Steveson’s debut opponent. “I don’t know if we go after a top 15 guy. I say this to you guys all the time: The UFC jitters are real. I don’t care how you’ve competed or where or what you’ve done. When you come here, it’s a different level.

“Our matchmakers are the best in the business. We’ll figure him out and get him the right fight. When I say that, I mean at what we think his level is, and what we think he’s capable of.”

Still, hopes are high for Steveson given that after his highly decorated wrestling career he made a smooth transition to MMA, racking up three wins in a row via 1st round strikes since his pro-debut back in September of last year.

It’s reminiscent of the fanfare surrounding another wrestling standout Bo Nickal when he first arrived in the UFC just three fights into his MMA career with people already talking about him as a potential future champion.

Like Steveson though, the gameplan with Nickal was clearly to slowly ramp up his level of opposition, and that has proven to be wise as he does have holes in his game that he’s had to work on during his 5-1 run at middleweight so far.

That being said, heavyweight is not a deep or talent-rich division and so someone with Steveson’s athleticism and wrestling ability certainly has the potential to make a big dent in their sooner rather than later if things start off well.