Kurt Angle is a retired professional wrestler and an American Olympic gold medalist. He has been on the WWE roster and is a WWE Hall of Fame.Kurt received an offer to be a part of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, but he turned it down. It was not just the money that bothered Kurt Angle, but the injury concern and he could not sign two companies simultaneously.
Why denying the UFC offer
He was in talks with the UFC since 1996, Kurt never felt that the offer provided enough money to justify the massive risks of competing in the Octagon. Though choosing pro-wrestling further as a career, he never regretted it. According to Kurt, he would have experienced the same type of success that he enjoyed in pro wrestling if he had signed for UFC.
They approached Kurt in 1997 and offered a ten-fight deal and it was $15,000 a fight, $150,000 for ten fights which was the highest deal. But it was not enough for Kurt.
Kurt stepped into WWE in 1999, the time when UFC did not explode. In the interview, Kurt says, he had a conversation with Dana when he left WWE in 2006. Kurt praised Dana, saying “Dana treated me very well.”
“He told me that he wanted me to do one fight and he also wanted me to show up at every pay-per-view, wave in the crowd and be there,” Angle added. “It was a lucrative deal but I’d just signed with TNA – IMPACT Wrestling. I asked Dana if I could do both, but he said I couldn’t do both, you had to do one or the other.” If possible, Kurt would have signed for both TNA impact and UFC.
UFC is a perilous sport, and Kurt already faced issues related to body and strength. Facing neck injuries and breaking it five times in total is a lot of damage, plus lacked upper body strength. Kurt said, if anyone would have got him in an armbar, they would have ripped his arm off. So he felt it was right for him to stick to the entertainment stuff.
