In an episode of MMA Weekly Radio, pro wrestler Kurt Angle dropped a bit of a bomb shell about his potential path to the octagon being closer than some people would’ve thought. It all happened after he finished filming Warrior, in which he plays a middleweight Russian fighter modeled after Fedor.
“I actually contacted Dana White again after the movie. I flew out to meet him once and got a great offer. I contacted him again, I was thinking about dropping out of [TNA] Impact Wrestling, and there were some personal problems with my marriage and I just wanted to get away,” he said. “I contacted Dana White, I flew out, and he had me take the UFC physical. I passed it, thank God, and he gave me the offer.”
At this point right now Angle is concentrating on the 2012 Olympics. The 43 year old is looking to get back on the team almost 16 years after winning a Gold Medal in Freestyle wrestling. If he makes the team, and medals, could he find his way back to MMA or pro wrestling remains to be seen.
“That remains to be seen. Depending on how good I do, I can’t say no,” Angle admitted. “Obviously, it’s going to raise Dana White’s eyebrows. He actually sat me down and said, ‘Kurt, if you do this, is your neck okay? Are you well enough to do this, cause I know you’ve taken a pounding the last 10 years?’ and I said, ‘Dana, I’m fine. Yeah, I broke my neck five different times, but I have never felt better than now. I’ve had setbacks, but I’m fine.’
“I can’t tell you till that time comes, but I tell you what, even making the USA team, the top two or three, it would raise Dana White’s eyebrows. My goal is to make the team. If you make the team in the United States, you have more than a better shot of medaling.”
Angle could possibly stay with TNA, with whom he performs for now, but hasn’t ruled out competing in Bellator Fighting Championships. Bellator is primed to step into Spike TV and into the shoes that the UFC has left behind.
“Who knows? Let’s see what happens,” Angle said. “I’m not counting out Bellator either. They’re going to be on Spike soon and you never know what’s going to happen with that company, they could flourish. The way Spike promoted the UFC, they could do the same for them.”
Dana White, on the other hand, was a bit less verbal in his Tweet denying Angle’s attempt at going into MMA: “love Kurt, but not true.”
what does this mean going forward? Angle, coming off a gold medal run in the Olympics, would still be a relative novice in the combat sports arena despite his wrestling credentials in 2012. While his one skill would be far and way the best in MMA coming in he’d be in the same spot James Toney was before his ill-fated venture into the Octagon with Randy Couture: having one really good tool against guys who have a whole arsenal. He would easily be the best credentialed amateur wrestler to step into a cage for an MMA fight no matter what; the only other precedent for this would be Aleksandr Karelin but that was a worked pro wrestling match for RINGS. Matt Lindland is currently the highest decorated amateur wrestler to have fought in MMA, who took a silver at the 2000 games, and Angle’s Gold (and a subsequent medal at the 2012 games in London) would be unprecedented for a fighter in MMA.
We also can’t discount that Angle would be 44 then, going on 45 or so before he would make a debut in MMA. That’s well past the age most guys have ended their careers, much less started them. Even a first rate athlete like Angle, perhaps the best to ever enter into MMA, would still be almost two decades removed from his physical prime. Coupled with a body that’s had a litany of what to others would be career-ending injuries and a big question of durability comes up. Whether his body could take that kind of abuse would be something that could be legitimately questioned.
He would need a good six months to at least get some rudimentary striking skills into his arsenal as well as some legitimate submission wrestling/BJJ into his fighting game as well. Say what you will about fighters like Daniel Cormier, Chael Sonnen and Ben Askren, who rely on their wrestling extensively to win fights, but all three have developed other facets of their game for years. Angle won’t have that kind of time at his age.
All in all this is more likely a publicity ploy by Angle to hype his return to Olympic level wrestling as well as hype the movie he has a prominent role in, which is released soon and has a sneak preview this weekend. Angle had a supporting role earlier this year in Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, based on the Italian comic book of the same name.
