Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle recently spoke on CM Punk’s upcoming UFC debut. Angle at one point was going to switch from pro wrestling to MMA, but UFC president Dana White said Angle didn’t pass the physical exam. Kurt recently spoke to DigitalSpy about CM Punk making that same switch:
“I wouldn’t say he is a young 37, I think that he’s a beat-up 37, but he has been able to take the year off – that’s going to help,” Angle said. “I just don’t know how good he is. I know he’s training, but I don’t know how good he is as a fighter. He’s a great pro-wrestler, but fighting is a different story.”
Angle concluded that either way, Punk will draw attention to the UFC with his debut fight: “He will draw, he will draw, and we’ll see how he does.”
CM Punk is expected to fight Mickey Gall (1-0) at UFC 199 in June. Kurt Angle will be appearing as as a commentator for Bellator MMA’s live Spike TV show on February 19. The main event is Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock, and Kurt Angle has stated he may take a fight with Shamrock later this year.
Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle recently spoke on CM Punk’s upcoming UFC debut. Angle at one point was going to switch from pro wrestling to MMA, but UFC president Dana White said Angle didn’t pass the physical exam. Kurt recently spoke to DigitalSpy about CM Punk making that same switch:
“I wouldn’t say he is a young 37, I think that he’s a beat-up 37, but he has been able to take the year off – that’s going to help,” Angle said. “I just don’t know how good he is. I know he’s training, but I don’t know how good he is as a fighter. He’s a great pro-wrestler, but fighting is a different story.”
Angle concluded that either way, Punk will draw attention to the UFC with his debut fight: “He will draw, he will draw, and we’ll see how he does.”
CM Punk is expected to fight Mickey Gall (1-0) at UFC 199 in June. Kurt Angle will be appearing as as a commentator for Bellator MMA’s live Spike TV show on February 19. The main event is Royce Gracie vs. Ken Shamrock, and Kurt Angle has stated he may take a fight with Shamrock later this year.
For years, Kurt Angle teased the notion of attempting to see how far his wrestling prowess could take him in mixed martial arts.
But the thought never materialized on account of the fact that the former Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist didn’t …
For years, Kurt Angle teased the notion of attempting to see how far his wrestling prowess could take him in mixed martial arts.
But the thought never materialized on account of the fact that the former Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist didn’t want to give up pro wrestling.
Angle detailed the close calls he had to signing with some of the most prominent organizations in the sport, including the UFC, on last Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, per a report from MMA Fighting‘s Dave Meltzer:
I’ve had meetings with them all in MMA, World Series, Elite XC, twice with UFC. Whether it was the money or the timing wasn’t right, it didn’t happen. I considered going until I turned 42. I wouldn’t even think about doing it now, unfortunately. I don’t regret it. When I met with Dana White, he wanted me to quit wrestling entirely, but I had just signed with TNA. I met with Dana the same week and he said I needed to quit wrestling. I couldn’t tell (TNA owner) Dixie Carter I wanted to back out.
The 46-year-old Angle, a former WWF/WWE heavyweight champ, still competes as a pro wrestler. He’s signed with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he’s the company’s heavyweight champ.
Angle admitted that he’s in the twilight of his career, and if he continues to compete as a pro wrestler, it will have to be on a part-time basis.
As for MMA, Angle knows his small window to dabble has long since passed. However, Angle did say that if he would have picked MMA following his Olympic gold medal in 1996, he would have experienced the same type of success that he enjoyed in pro wrestling.
“I believe I’d have been as good in MMA as I was in pro wrestling, but I don’t regret it,” he said. “If the money was there in MMA when I came out of the Olympics, I’d have gone into MMA. But it wasn’t there until I was four years into my WWE career. But I love pro wrestling, so it wasn’t meant to be for me.”
Angle convened with UFC President Dana White on more than one occasion to discuss potential deals. During his second meeting with White, which took place in 2008, Angle said White talked about the idea of having Angle join the cast of The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights, which included Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson. That season of TUF was coached by Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Angle said:
The second time I met with Dana, I took the physical. He wanted me to do The Ultimate Fighter with Kimbo. He was great. He was willing to pay me a good bit of money to be on the show. But he wanted me ready in four-and-a-half weeks. It just wasn’t in the cards. I think it would have been great TV. He was willing to sign me to a six-fight deal after the show, but he wanted me on the show. But it wasn’t going to happen in four-and-a-half weeks.
Angle not only turned down White’s offer to compete on TUF, but he also walked away from a potentially lucrative deal to fight an old pro wrestling rival, former American Kickboxing Academy student Daniel Puder.
Angle said he was interested in fighting Puder in the Octagon, but said he decided to turn the deal down because he had just signed with TNA Wrestling days earlier.
An accomplished actor who has landed several roles in motion pictures and television shows, Angle made his name as an amateur wrestler. After winning a high school state championship in Pennsylvania, Angle won a pair of NCAA Division I titles at Clarion University. He then defeated Iran’s Abbas Jadidi to win the gold medal at the Summer Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta.
Angle’s younger brother, Mark, was also a top-flight amateur wrestler, reaching All-American status in three straight seasons from 1998 to 2000 at Clarion.
For some MMA fighters, professional wrestling was just a one-time cash grab. For others, it became a second career. Inspired by yet another week of TNA Impact Wrestling’s efforts to get anyone to care about the professional wrestling experiments of two broken-down MMA legends, we’ll be examining fighters who took up professional wrestling after they made their names in MMA in our newest installment of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Bear in mind that this article is focusing on mixed martial artists who transitioned to professional wrestling careers, and not fighters who started off as professional wrestlers. So that means fighters like Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock, Bobby Lashley, Giant Silva, Bob Sapp, Dos Caras Jr. (aka Alberto Del Rio), Dan Severn (Google it) and Sakuraba will not be covered here — although a few of these men will make appearances in this article. Let’s start off on a positive note…
The Good
The Professional Wrestling Career of Josh Barnett.
When you’re thinking of good instances of an MMA fighter turning to professional wrestling as a second career choice, Josh Barnett should immediately come to mind. There have been other fighters who dabbled in professional wrestling, but Barnett is one of the only ones to be just as popular and successful in it as he was in MMA.
Before his transition, Barnett became the youngest heavyweight champion in UFC history by defeating Randy Couture at UFC 36. After being stripped of his title due to a positive drug test, Barnett set his sights on the Japanese professional wrestling scene, where the fans value legitimacy and toughness from their wrestlers more than mic skills and charisma (although Barnett has both in spades). He immediately challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and although he came up short, he went on to enjoy the most relevant crossover career of any fighter on this list before his return to the UFC earlier this year put a halt to the wrasslin’ for the time being.
For some MMA fighters, professional wrestling was just a one-time cash grab. For others, it became a second career. Inspired by yet another week of TNA Impact Wrestling’s efforts to get anyone to care about the professional wrestling experiments of two broken-down MMA legends, we’ll be examining fighters who took up professional wrestling after they made their names in MMA in our newest installment of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.
Bear in mind that this article is focusing on mixed martial artists who transitioned to professional wrestling careers, and not fighters who started off as professional wrestlers. So that means fighters like Brock Lesnar, Ken Shamrock, Bobby Lashley, Giant Silva, Bob Sapp, Dos Caras Jr. (aka Alberto Del Rio), Dan Severn (Google it) and Sakuraba will not be covered here — although a few of these men will make appearances in this article. Let’s start off on a positive note…
The Good
The Professional Wrestling Career of Josh Barnett.
When you’re thinking of good instances of an MMA fighter turning to professional wrestling as a second career choice, Josh Barnett should immediately come to mind. There have been other fighters who dabbled in professional wrestling, but Barnett is one of the only ones to be just as popular and successful in it as he was in MMA.
Before his transition, Barnett became the youngest heavyweight champion in UFC history by defeating Randy Couture at UFC 36. After being stripped of his title due to a positive drug test, Barnett set his sights on the Japanese professional wrestling scene, where the fans value legitimacy and toughness from their wrestlers more than mic skills and charisma (although Barnett has both in spades). He immediately challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and although he came up short, he went on to enjoy the most relevant crossover career of any fighter on this list before his return to the UFC earlier this year put a halt to the wrasslin’ for the time being.
With Frye’s “rematch” against Yoshihiro Takayama being one of the few exceptions, the professional wrestling careers of Don Frye and Bas Rutten have been exactly what you’d expect them to be. If I need to explain why that’s a good thing, you’reobviouslynewhere.
The Polar Bear Fights Taz at ECW Hardcore Heaven.
(Enjoy the video while it lasts. Seriously, WWE’s lawyers will probably have it taken down soon.)
By 1996, a stocky, Brooklyn-born judoka by the name of Peter Senercia — better known as Taz — was one of the most talented, respected wrestlers on the independent circuit. Dubbed “The Human Suplex Machine,” Taz brawled his way through most of the ECW roster and was looking to take on some credible new opponents. This led to a problem for ECW owner Paul Heyman: Despite its success among hardcore wrestling fans, ECW was still very much an independent promotion that couldn’t afford to bring in established wrestlers just to job to one of their top stars. Always one to embrace new ideas, Heyman solved this dilemma by bringing Paul “The Polar Bear” Varelans in from the upstart Ultimate Fighting Championship to challenge Taz to a “real” fight at Hardcore Heaven.
At 6’8” tall and tipping the scales at 300 pounds, Varelans was the perfect fighter for Heyman to utilize. He was big enough to be seen as a formidable opponent, but his MMA record wasn’t too impressive for anyone to buy that Taz could actually beat him. The strong-style nature of the match hid The Polar Bear’s lack of professional wrestling training, yet also wasn’t out of place in ECW — especially not while Taz was in the ring. And while Taz obviously won the fight, he relied on outside interference. Having heels bend the rules in order to defeat larger, more skilled opponents is not only a common way to generate heat, but it also makes the ending more realistic in the eyes of the ECW fans who were familiar with those early UFC events. Well, at least as realistic as a fight that ends by Tazmission after an outsider dropkicks one of the fighters can look, I guess (work with me, people). Basically, everyone involved benefited from the situation and the fans actually cared about the angle — something that rarely happens when MMA fighters infiltrate the world of professional wrestling.
Bonus: According to wrestling legend, it was Taz who brought tapping out to professional wrestling. Taz was a huge Royce Gracie fan, and thought it would be more authentic if wrestlers tapped out at the end of their matches instead of just verbally submitting. If you think wrestling looks fake now, just imagine what it looked like when wrestlers verbally submitted to choke holds.
Brian Johnson Reinvents Himself in Japan
I’m willing to bet that, like most MMA fans, you’ve all but forgotten about Brian Johnson — the man who punched out a hapless Reza Nasri in under 30 seconds at UFC 11 before being emphatically tackled by Big John McCarthy. In terms of his real fighting career, you didn’t miss much — Johnson retired barely one year after he started fighting and lost to everyone he’s fought that you’ve heard of. However, with few other career options available for hulking spandex-clad athletes, Johnson turned to fake fighting and quickly excelled at it. He enjoyed success as a tag-team wrestler, pairing up with guys like Don Frye and Kazuyuki Fujita in the Japanese professional wrestling circuit.
Unfortunately, Johnson’s professional wrestling career would eventually serve as a brutal reminder that even though the fights are fake, the injuries that plague wrestlers are all too real. A series of concussions led him to retire in early 2001, and later that year, at only thirty-two years old, he would suffer a severe stroke. Though Johnson is alive and well today, he has wisely stayed away from the squared circle.
Hit that “next page” link for god awful gimmicks, the career that should have been, and the partnership that never should have…
If watching two dudes stare ominously at each other from inches away whilst using a microphone to communicate is your thing, then BOY DO WE HAVE A VIDEO FOR YOU.
After signing a dual contract with Bellator and TNA wrestling ala Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal earlier this week, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made his big debut with the latter last night. And if he was hoping that being a professional MMA fighter would earn him some of that “respect” he’s always talking about in the world of wrasslin’, he was…right, we guess? Rampage could barely get out one of his signature howls before being challenged by Kurt Angle (a.k.a “Koba“) — a close-talker if there ever was one — who vehemently declared that Page “get off his plane” or some such nonsense. This lead to a heated staredown which ended with Page laying the smackdown on Kurt’s candy ass shaking Angle’s hand like a gentleman??!
Jesus, if we ever needed any evidence that Rampage has truly lost the fire, this is it. The Rampage of old would have at least promised us some “black on white” crime before commenting on Angle’s stank bref. Pour one out for a fallen friend, Potato Nation…
If watching two dudes stare ominously at each other from inches away whilst using a microphone to communicate is your thing, then BOY DO WE HAVE A VIDEO FOR YOU.
After signing a dual contract with Bellator and TNA wrestling ala Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal earlier this week, former UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton “Rampage” Jackson made his big debut with the latter last night. And if he was hoping that being a professional MMA fighter would earn him some of that “respect” he’s always talking about in the world of wrasslin’, he was…right, we guess? Rampage could barely get out one of his signature howls before being challenged by Kurt Angle (a.k.a “Koba“) — a close-talker if there ever was one — who vehemently declared that Page “get off his plane” or some such nonsense. This lead to a heated staredown which ended with Page laying the smackdown on Kurt’s candy ass shaking Angle’s hand like a gentleman??!
Jesus, if we ever needed any evidence that Rampage has truly lost the fire, this is it. The Rampage of old would have at least promised us some “black on white” crime before commenting on Angle’s stank bref. Pour one out for a fallen friend, Potato Nation…
We have seen two professional wrestlers make the transition into MMA. They were Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley.Lesnar went on to become the UFC heavyweight champion and quite arguably made the UFC the PPV business they are today. Lashley, however,…
We have seen two professional wrestlers make the transition into MMA. They were Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley.
Lesnar went on to become the UFC heavyweight champion and quite arguably made the UFC the PPV business they are today. Lashley, however, hasn’t achieved the success that Lesnar had and has been a marginal fighter in Strikeforce and various regional promotions.
It was announced two weeks ago that former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal agreed to a deal with Bellator and TNA Wrestling to do MMA and pro wrestling.
TNA Wrestling president Dixie Carter feels that one of her wrestlers could also make that transition into MMA and wrestling. His name? Kurt Angle.
Angle stated last year he had been offered a contract by the UFC, but UFC president Dana White rebuffed that statement and said Angle was offered a slot on The Ultimate Fighter Season 10. Angle was not able to pass a physical according to White.
Carter states though they need the right deal for Angle to do MMA.
“Absolutely, he was. Kurt’s one of those unbelievable athletes that rises to the top of whatever field,” Carter told me. “Let’s say it’s amateur wrestler. Then what’s the next big thing he’s going to concur? Then he becomes the greatest wrestler in professional wrestling history. Then, it’s like, ‘OK. I’ve done that. Now, what else am I going to do?’
“He really wanted to fight,” Cater said. “He started training for it. But, I said, ‘Look, if we can’t get the right deal with the right organization to do it with, it’s just not worth doing if we can’t do it at the very top level.’ So, that’s why he decided to make a run at the Olympics at his age. And I’ve got to tell you, if it hadn’t been for that last-minute injury, I think he was just pushing himself so hard, working for me and training. I really feel like he had a good shot of making that team.”
With Lawal now signed with Bellator and TNA, could we see Angle in the cage? Only time will tell.
You can listen to my interview with Dixie Carter here.
Nate Marquardt wants one specific opponent. Should the fight take place, the match-up may be the most exciting non-UFC bout that can be made. Nate Marquardt has his sights locked on British slugger Paul Daley. “He has a good name,” Marquard…
Nate Marquardt wants one specific opponent.
Should the fight take place, the match-up may be the most exciting non-UFC bout that can be made. Nate Marquardt has his sights locked on British slugger Paul Daley.
“He has a good name,” Marquardt told Bleacher Report’s Gary Herman. “He’s a good fighter—and he talked all that crap about me? I want to fight him.”
When Marquardt was recently let go by the UFC, some fighters defended him and some fighters did not. Most of the fighters, however, knew the former middleweight title contender personally.
Daley, however, never came in contact with Marquardt.
“I just met him a few weeks ago in England,” Marquardt said about Daley, “but I hadn’t met him before that.
Regardless, Daley had this to say to Bleacher Report just after the Marquardt situation went down.
“Obviously, he was called out (on steroids) and it’s not the first time he’s been caught,” Daley said, “so obviously he’s been using performance-enhancing drugs when training, fighting etc…”
Daley was not finished.
“As soon as the (Tyron) Woodley fight’s out of the way, Nate can get a hold of my manager and we’ll make the fight happen,” Daley said. “As far as what he said about me and the rest of those guys—I think we all pretty much have the same mentality. If he wants to fight, we’ll fight.”
Now that both are competing in the upstart BAMMA organization, the fight has a very realistic shot to take place. Marquardt has already signed to compete on the organization’s next show on December 10.
“It’s still undecided,” Marquardt said, when asked about his next opponent, “but I’m really hoping it will be Paul Daley.”
Fighting with BAMMA will be a new experience for Marquardt. His last 14 fights have all been in the UFC. He went 10-4 in the promotion.
Once he was let go by Zuffa, Marquardt quickly became very popular.
“We were pretty much contacted by every organization outside of the UFC,” Marquardt said. “We looked for what would be the best fit, and what would have the most opportunity. We thought BAMMA had the best show outside of the UFC. They have good fighters, and they are growing rapidly.”
Changing promotions is not the only new experience for Marquardt. In December, Marquardt will also be debuting at 170 lbs.
“I want to be a dominant welterweight,” Marquardt said about his career goals. “I want to show everyone I’m one of the top welterweights in the world—if not the top welterweight in the world.”
Even though Marquardt has not fought since March 2011, he has still been in the spotlight. He had a role in the recent movie release Warrior.
“I was in Pittsburgh filming for nine weeks,” Marquardt said. “It was something I’d definitely considering doing more of.”
While in Pittsburgh, Marquardt had a chance to meet another actor in the movie—former Olympic gold medalist and current pro wrestler Kurt Angle.
Angle often talked about making the switch to MMA, but nothing ever came of it. Marquardt believes he would have been a success.
“We hung out a few times,” Marquardt said about Angle. “If Kurt had focused his career to MMA instead of wrestling? He could have been a star for sure.”
For now, Marquardt is no longer acting and is looking to reignite his fight career. He has a simple plan to get back to the spotlight.
“I need to win big fights against big names.”
Daley could certainly be his next attempt against an MMA star. Should the two meet, Marquardt is very confident in the result.
“He’s got an exciting style,” Marquardt said, “but I think I’d destroy him. I’d be too much for him. I am too well rounded. My takedowns are too good. My ground is too good.”
“I think I’m a better stand-up fighter. I’m stronger. I train harder. That’s it.”
For years, Kurt Angle teased the notion of attempting to see how far his wrestling prowess could take him in mixed martial arts.
