Dana White says UFC offered Kurt Angle spot on "TUF 10" but Angle failed medicals

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Former Olympic gold medal winner and current professional wrestler Kurt Angle has long talked about a move to MMA, and has said in multiple interviews that UFC President Dana White had offered him a spot in the UFC in the past, but didn't give him enough time to prepare for a debut bout. On Saturday night, White admitted offering Angle a slot, but not in the same vein of what Angle claimed.

"I like Kurt Angle," White said after UFC on Versus 6 on Saturday night (transcribed by MMAJunkie.com). "He's a nice guy. I've never had any problems with Kurt Angle. Good guy. Kurt Angle was calling me to fight in the UFC. He wanted to fight in the UFC. He wanted to come over here and whatever, especially after Brock got in."

"What I offered him was, I said, 'Come over here. I'll put you on 'The Ultimate Fighter.' The season Kimbo Slice was on, I was going to put him on 'The Ultimate Fighter.' He wanted to do it. We worked out a deal, but he didn't pass the medicals."

White, however, flat-out denied a claim Angle made recently that the UFC offered him a pay-per-view fight with Kimbo Slice.

"That's it," White said. "That's all I'm saying. I never set up a pay-per-view fight for him. I never told him, 'You're fighting Kimbo Slice on pay-per-view.' Kurt, you're a good guy, but that's not true, and that never happened.

"I thought it would be interesting, and I thought it would be cool, but never once did I say, 'We're going to set up a pay-per-view match with you and Kimbo.' That is not true."

Penick's Analysis: That actually makes sense with what the 10th season of The Ultimate fighter was all about. Considering they had other fighters with no professional experience in MMA and simply gave Slice his opportunity to get into the UFC, that would have been the venue to bring Angle into the UFC in the least freak-show-like way possible. Still, Angle's had multiple neck surgeries and a long history of injuries so it's not surprising at all that he would fail the medical exams for TUF. I don't think there was ever any real future for Angle in MMA, not at his age and with what his body has already gone through from years of amateur and professional wrestling that have been filled with injuries, drugs and more. It would have made for even more viewers turning in for that season than even did in the first place, but ultimately even if he had passed his medicals he couldn't have handled multiple fights in a six week stretch.

[Kurt Angle art by Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_10718.shtml

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