Kurt Angle Corrects His Comments About Being Asked To Fight Kimbo Slice In UFC
Imagine what Kurt Angle and Kimbo Slice facing off as members in the UFC as a part of The Ultimate Fighter Season 10 would have looked like.
On the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler spoke about how he was originally supposed to be a part of the Ultimate Fighter in 2009 as a part of Team Rampage Jackson or Team Rashad Evans. The show featured heavyweight fighters and included several names that would go on to fight in the UFC that included Kimbo Slice, Brendan Schaub, Matt Mitrione and the winner of the season Roy Nelson.
When Angle reportedly met with Dana White years after he left WWE for TNA due to his health and drug addiction, the former WWE Champion revealed several offers the UFC made him, including a fight with Daniel Puder and an offer to be a part of the Ultimate Fighter. Angle spoke about an interview he had prior to Bound for Glory 2011 where he had a back-and-forth with Dana White and the UFC over a conversation they had about fighting Kimbo Slice in 2009.
"Let me clear the air on this, what happened was after I met with Dana White and we talked out the deal that we were going to do and money and all of that, I got interviewed and I told the interviewer that I was going to have a fight with Kimbo Slice at a UFC pay per view," Angle said. "I was wrong, that wasn't the message that I wanted to portray, I don't know why I said it. What it was Kimbo and I were going to be on Ultimate Fighter as contestants, two of the eight fighters, him and I.
"I told Dana 'You don't get paid to be on the show, I need to get paid.' He actually offered me a substantial amount of money to be on the Ultimate Fighter, so I decided 'Let me think about it Dana.' The thing is when I did the interview, I got mixed up and just thought about Kimbo and said him and I are going to fight at this pay per view which we probably would have, but at that particular time it wasn't set in stone. Dana was right to call my bluff, I did do testing, I don't know if I passed or not the physical, I don't know what occurred there but I was wrong about my comments and Dana White was right."
The former WWE Champion recently spoke about what would've happened if he ended up in the UFC and how he would have fought Brock Lesnar in the octagon although they're good friends. Angle revealed issues he was dealing with in 2011 while he was working for TNA. The Olympic Gold Medalist said he was heavy into alcohol at the time and is happy to be sober for the past eight and a half years.
"I was heavy into alcohol at that particular time," Angle said. "Not the painkillers, painkillers were pretty much a done deal for me so I switched to alcohol and would only drink it at night. It was a trying time for me and that's one of the main reasons I ended up going to rehab in 2013 and it was something that I knew I had a problem switching from painkillers to alcohol, that's what addicts do. It was no excuse for me to do that but you make a choice and you have to live with it. I really ruined my reputation big time, especially getting four DUI's in five years which was unreal. I was very careless, didn't really think much, made poor decisions and I had to live with that. The movies we were talking about, they stopped calling. I've spent the last eight years trying to earn back the respect of other people and society because I did make a lot of mistakes, I've been clean and sober for eight and a half years and I've been doing pretty well so at that particular time I wasn't doing so well but I wasn't either in WWE."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Kurt Angle Show with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.