Kurt Angle: Talking Again
By Josh Stein on Sep 25, 2008
I know that this is going to shock you… or not… but Kurt Angle really wants to do MMA! He really does.
The Sun released a brief little interview (I don’t know if it’s fair to call it an interview, since it’s really more of a statement) with Angle, and in it Angle said that he wanted to be the first Olympic gold medalist to step into the Octagon.
When I saw the words “first” and “gold medal” in that statement I got ready to jump on him, but unfortunately he qualified that with the word “Octagon.” For those of you who don’t see what I’m getting at, there are a handful of Olympic gold medalists in MMA, though not as many as we might like.
The first name that jumped to mind was Roman Greco wrestling gold medalist Rulon Gardner, though I was a little surprised that I didn’t immediately remember Hidehiko Yoshida. Obviously, Gardner and Yoshida have never fought in the UFC, and Gardner really only has that one fight (against Yoshida, in Pride, which he won).
Of course, Angle is safe on the factual front.
Where he’s not safe, however, is when it comes to his smack talk, because it’s been going on forever and not only has it not gone anywhere before, it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere now, either.
Angle loves to talk. He loves the attention that he gets from MMA fans and he enjoys getting them riled up. I only say this because I want people to remember that when Kurt Angle talks about MMA, it’s like when Anderson Silva talked about going to boxing: the promoters will never let it happen.
Would MMA promoters love to have Kurt Angle fight in their show? Absolutely. He self promotes like Brock Lesnar and he’s got an Olympic gold medal to flash around, as well as a prolific set of lips to flap.
The real issue, though, is the matter of getting him a huge sum of money and a throwaway debut opponent. Realistically, Angle is not going to be tossed in with a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blackbelt, as that was the move that shattered (or at least dented) Brock Lesnar’s legitimacy early on, and it might send Angle almost immediately back to pro wrestling, as it’s much easier money than MMA would prove to be.
There are alot of unanswered questions with Angle, but until we see him training in MMA and signing a contract to fight in an organization, it’s just a bald pro wrestler with a shiny circle on his chest wasting his breath. When he signs, I’ll start talking about matchups, but until then, I’d just like Mr. Angle to sit down with an organization and sign a contract.
Filed Under: MMA
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Ok, first I like Kurt Angle because he’s entertaining. Many fighters really do not understand the art of promotion like these wild cowboys from the School of McMahon.
But Angle is 39 with a well chronicled list of injuries from years of wreslting and sports entertainment. He can and will probably bring in a number of fans.
As we all know, do not believe what Dana White says. While he may talk smack about Tito, Kimbo and Angle. I believe he will or would sign them if the opportunity presented itself. Even though all 3 fighters have their limitations, I think people will pay to see them win or lose. However, I really doubt Angle will be to get a really huge Lesnar-like contract because time is not on his side and the iron is cold. Lesnar stole the whole WWE-MMA thunder. Personally I would love to see Angle in the cage against an elite striker or submission specialist.
While the prospect of Kurt Angle competing in MMA competitively may be intriguing, I resigned to the fact that for now it is just talk.
Vee, I disagree with you about Dana signing Kimbo. I think that Dana knows that Kimbo Slice is a bad investment for the UFC, because they’d have to find and promote really crappy fighters for him to beat, and Dana doesn’t want to do that.
I agree that watching Angle fight a top striker (and I have a few, specifically, in mind) or a BJJ world champion would be awesome, but mostly because I think that Angle would get smashed (especially by a jiu-jitsu guy).
Xande Ribeiro’s UFC debut should be against Kurt Angle!
Eventually Kimbo will demonstrate that he is more than just a brawler that fights carefully picked cans. He has two great trainers in Bas and Randy. And people will still hate or doubt him for whatever reasons. It’s neither here nor there.
Angle KO’ed or put to sleep would be priceless. Either way, I’m not holding my breath for Angle’s debut because UFC 91 is right around the corner.
Vee, I don’t disagree that Kimbo has good trainers, but if he’s going to demonstrate that he can beat more than carefully picked cans, he’s going to have to fight more than carefully picked cans.
We saw in the Thompson fight that he still has alot of issues in his game, and they need to be addressed by his coaching staff.
I’d love to see Angle KO’d or put to sleep, especially by a really legit fighter, like Gonzaga. Something about that matchup makes me salivate… must be the idea of Angle in an armbar.