Why Kurt Angle never fought in the UFC: Everything you need to know

Kurt Angle is heralded among the greatest freestyle wrestlers to ever perform in professional wrestling. The American grappling savant won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the 1996 Olympic Games.

He later crossed over from amateur wrestling to the professional wrestling-based sports entertainment realm of the WWE. Angle made his on-screen WWE debut in November 1999 and achieved incredible success in the organization.

Angle eventually parted ways with the WWE and wrestled under the TNA (now-Impact Wrestling) banner for a few years, after which he returned to the WWE. The legendary grappler ended his in-ring pro wrestling career after a match against Baron Corbin at WWE's WrestleMania 35 in 2019.

In an interview with The Hannibal TV a few years ago, Kurt Angle explained why he never fought in the world's premier MMA organization (UFC) despite being an outstanding grappler. Angle suggested that he was in negotiations for making his MMA debut in the UFC in 1997.

This was way before current UFC CEO Dana White took charge of the promotion in 2001 and turned the company into a global brand. Angle recalled being offered a 10-fight deal and $15,000 per fight. Noting that the money wasn't good enough and that competing in legitimate MMA fights for that pay would've been brutal, he stated:

"It was money. The UFC when they approached me it was in 1997."

Besides, it's well-known that Angle dealt with multiple neck injury issues during his amateur and pro wrestling careers. Nevertheless, he'd self-admittedly tried his hand at submission grappling in the 2008-2009 timeframe to test the waters for a potential MMA debut.

However, his neck injuries and lack of upper-body strength didn't permit an MMA run. Angle said:

"The UFC started coming strong after I got involved with the WWE in 1998. The UFC became like a really big company by 2001 and I was thinking about crossing over but then I broke my neck again. That ended my dreams of doing anything in MMA."

Watch Angle discuss the topic in the video below:

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Kurt Angle reveals UFC and WWE contract secrets in conversation with Joe Rogan

Earlier this month, UFC's parent company Endeavor officially merged the WWE with the UFC after acquiring the professional wrestling company. The UFC-WWE merger resulted in the formation of TKO Group Holdings, Inc., a new company owned by Endeavor.

In a recent appearance on UFC commentator Joe Rogan's JRE podcast, Kurt Angle discussed the aforesaid merger.

Kurt Angle revealed that back in the day, the UFC and the WWE used to contractually forbid their respective athletes from crossing over to the other promotion. The 54-year-old indicated that he doesn't know whether that's still the case after the UFC-WWE merger. Angle said:

"I know that Dana [Dana White] and Vince [Vince McMahon], their contracts have specifically, 'You can't go to WWE.' If you're WWE, 'You can't go to UFC.' They were going against each other when they shouldn't be." (h/t fightful.com)