Jon Jones left in disbelief as protege Gable Steveson is viciously KO’d in 12 seconds

Jon Jones watched on in dismay from cageside as his protégé, Gable Steveson, was flattened at UFC 331.

Steveson, an Olympic and two-time NCAA freestyle wrestling champion, had been tipped as the heir apparent to the heavyweight throne that Jones had given up last year.

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Since beginning his transition to MMA at the Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, Jones had taken Steveson under his wing and was in the 26-year-old's corner for his sophomore UFC fight against Sean Sharaf.

Heavy underdog Sharaf had lost both of his previous Octagon appearances inside the distance, and most preeminent voices felt he was merely being offered up as a sacrificial lamb to the next-generation star.

Bookies had Sharaf as wide as a +1200 outsider, but he proved the oddsmakers wrong by rendering Steveson unconscious 12 seconds into the fight with a massive left hook.

The massive upset stunned Jones just as much as everyone else inside the packed-out Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

A corner camera captured Jones with an expression of pure shock painted across his face as Steveson was sent tumbling to the canvas.

It marked the first defeat of Steveson's fledgling 4-1 professional MMA career, and the third-fastest finish in UFC heavyweight history.

“I’m not surprised, motherf*****,” Said Sharaf in a nod to Nate Diaz's iconic post-fight interview after his upset win over Conor McGregor.

“I feel amazing. I worked so hard, I prayed so hard.

"I believed in myself when nobody believed in myself. I want to thank you all for your support.”

Sean Sharaf cashes bonus

Sharaf was given a $50,000 'Chaos' bonus, plus an extra $50,000 personally matched by UFC president Dana White.

The former US Marine says he will use the money to help his sick mother retire.

"I just want to call my mum," Sharaf told UFC cageside reporter Megan Olivi.

"She's been worrying about me, and she's been praying so hard for me.

"I just want to take a moment to appreciate it because sometimes I'm always worried about the next one...

"[My mum] wanted to come, but the last one I was pretty busted up, so I was worried about her.

"She’s got Asthma, she’s got a pacemaker, she’s got so many health problems, she has sciatica right now. I just want to help her retire."

talkSPORT.com has collectively voted on the best fighters to form a regularly updated UFC pound-for-pound (P4P) rankings system for the rest of 2026 and beyond.

Our P4P list will be updated regularly based on performances in the Octagon — with wins, records, title wins and defences, calibre of opponents, methods of victory and much more all determining who makes it.

UFC champions Islam Makhachev, Tom Aspinall and Sean Strickland feature - but big stars such as Alex Pereira and Arman Tsarukyan miss out.