Dana White would’ve loved to have signed Kurt Angle to the UFC.
The gifted grappler excelled in freestyle wrestling, utilizing his incredible talent to win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Despite several years having passed since he last fought, MMA fans would love to see Brock Lesnar back in the cage. In an esteemed career, the powerhouse managed to defy the odds and win a UFC world title.
And there’s no reason Angle couldn’t have done the same thing.
WOW: Dana White bizarrely compared 6-1 UFC star to one of the greatest fighters of all time
Kurt Angle says the UFC made him three offers
Kurt Angle has opened up about his negotiations with the UFC, claiming the company made him several offers to fight in their promotion.
Alas, he wasn’t impressed by the first number on the table.
In an interview with SportBIBLE, Angle claimed: “Before I signed with the WWE, the UFC approached me and offered $150,000 for 10 fights; that’s only $15,000 a fight, and I wasn’t going to sign that contract, it wasn’t enough.
“That was quite lucrative at the time for the UFC, but I decided to go with the WWE.
“By the time we reached 2000 and my career there really got going, the UFC was suddenly a really big company, and Dana White had taken control of it.
“I started thinking ‘maybe I should go to UFC, but I’m having such a great career in the WWE’ – so I carried on.”
A few years down the line, after Angle finished his first stint in the WWE, White contacted him to try and get him to sign on the dotted line. However, there was one major issue that got in the way.
The grappler said: “In 2006, when I left the WWE, Dana White called me and invited me to meet him in Las Vegas.
“I met him at a beautiful penthouse hotel room, and he offered me a contract. It was a seven-year deal, just with one fight. The rest of the time, I’d be sat in the front row of the arena, waving to the fans. It was a lot of money offered.
“Immediately after leaving the WWE, though, I signed with TNA. I asked Dana if I could do both, and he said ‘absolutely not – you either wrestle, or you fight’.”
At the age of 40, Angle contacted White for one last conversation.
The wrestler explained: “Halfway through my TNA career, I was thinking about leaving, so I called Dana again, but I was 40 years old at this point. I was still seriously considering it, though. Dana offered me a six-fight deal for a substantial amount of money.
“He asked me to take a physical, but I failed it because of my neck. I wasn’t able to do it, so I carried on with TNA.
“Dana was very cool and respectful. He wanted me to join, but it just couldn’t happen. I look back and I’m glad I didn’t do it, because when I was 40, I was so beat up. I’d had five broken necks, and my upper strength was diabolical. I couldn’t bench 135lb for five reps. I would have had my a– handed to me.
“I’d spent many years wrestling those huge monsters, and I wasn’t in the prime of my career. If I was in my prime, yeah, I believe I could have won a UFC title.”
Dana White reveals the massive amount of money the UFC wants its next broadcasting partner to pay
While Angle’s first UFC offer wasn’t great, by the sounds of things, his second two were.
This comes as no major surprise considering how much money the company generates.
The UFC has become one of the biggest brands on the planet, with the organization now potentially set to move away from ESPN in favor of a new television network.
Now, White has revealed how much money the UFC would want a broadcasting partner to pay.
