Kurt Angle has gone down as one of the most accomplished athletes in the history of combat sports. The Pennsylvania native famously won a gold medal (with a broken freakin’ neck) in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games. Years later, Angle took his talents from the mat to the squared circle, joining the World Wrestling Federation in a move that kicked off a professional wrestling career that spanned two decades. Angle won world titles, headlined WWE WrestleMania, and cemented himself as a weekly highlight of WWE programming. His WWE run was only half of his career too, as Angle took his talents to TNA in 2006 and embarked on another historic run.
While that TNA run was met with much fanfare, it did prevent Angle from adding another combat sport to his rรฉsumรฉ: mixed martial arts.
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Kurt Angle “Definitely” Would Have Joined UFC
In an alternate timeline, the Olympic gold medalist tested his luck inside the octagon.
Speaking toย The True Geordie, Kurt Angle revealed that he “definitely” would have joined UFC if the money was right upon their initial conversations.
“I don’t know if I would have been champion, but I definitely would have joined the UFC. I would have signed with them,” Angle said. “They contacted me in 1996, right after the Olympics. They offered me a 10-fight deal for $150,000. That’s $15,000 a fight. What it is now today, these guys are getting $16-18 million a fight on pay-per-view now. I passed on it, and I started wrestling in 1998 with WWE.”
Once UFC began to reach a wider audience, Angle started getting the itch.
“By 2000, UFC started becoming mainstream. I was like, man, I’d love to do that. Literally half a year later, I broke my neck again, and that was it,” Angle continued. “When I broke my neck again, I lost all my strength in my arms. I lost feeling in my hands. To this day, I have no feeling in my pinky fingers and my pointer fingers. There was no way, even though I entertained it in 2006.”
“Entertained it” is a bit of an understatement, as Angle directly contacted UFC President Dana White about coming in, which led to plans for him to star on The Ultimate Fighter being set in motion.
” I went to Dana White in 2006 and said, ‘Hey, I’m ready.’ He offered me a deal. He wanted me to be on The Ultimate Fighter with Kimbo Slice,” Angle said. “I said, ‘Dana, those guys don’t get paid to be on that show.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll pay you a substantial amount of money just to be on it. I’ll take care of you.’ I was getting ready to do it, and I ended up signing with TNA a week prior.”
That TNA deal ultimately ended Angle’s UFC career before it could officially start.
“I thought that I could do both, which was crazy, it was stupid. TNA was gonna give me a part-time contract, so I figured I could train UFC as well,” Angle added. “So I told Dana, ‘I just signed with TNA. Can I do both?’ He said, ‘No, you can’t do both.’ I said, ‘Dana, I have to respect this contract I have with TNA. I’ll come back to you if my contract expires in a decent amount of time and I’m still at an age that you want me, I’ll come back to you.’”
