Kurt Angle was pursued heavily by UFC and Dana White during the height of his wrestling career, but despite having an interesting in fighting the Olympic Gold Medal Winner never took a deal.
Angle spoke on this topic during a recent interview with ESPN. He recalls the first offer he received from UFC after his Olympic run, but says he opted to go to WWE.
I love fighting, but I don’t love it that much to get my butt kicked for 15 grand [per fight]. So, I decided to go to WWE and when I got there, I had so much success early on. And then UFC started becoming mainstream in the early 2000s, and this is when I was having a stellar career in WWE, winning world championships, beating The Rock for the world championship, beating ‘Stone Cold’ [Steve Austin] for the world championship. And I thought, ‘Man, I would love to fight, but I already had this great career going on right now.’
Another offer from Dana White was made to Angle shortly after he signed with TNA/IMPACT in the mid-2000s. However, White didn’t want him wrestling so he once again turned the UFC down.
Dana White would not let me wrestle and fight at the same time. And I didn’t want to go back to TNA and say, ‘Listen, that contract I just signed is null and void.’
At one point later on Angle was set to compete inside the octagon, but realized that he was past his prime.
I started training for it a little bit and I realized, ‘I’m past my prime, I can’t do this.’ So, I had to turn it down. But I’m very grateful for the offers Dana White gave me. He is an incredible person.
In a separate interview, Angle spoke about Gable Steveson in WWE and what he needs to do to succeed. You can read about that here.