Don’t Believe the Hype: Kurt Angle Will Never Do MMA

Every now and then you need to call BS on someone. Today it’s Olympic Gold Medalist Kurt Angle.

Angle floated the idea recently that he would step inside the cage to fight — wait for it — Kimbo Slice, Ken Shamrock, Dan Severn or Royce Gracie. Check out the painful interview here.

Bellator, don’t even think about it. You might as well book Kanye West vs. Ray J, Kim Kardashian vs. Amber Rose or King Mo vs. Eddie Murphy with Arsenio Hall as special guest referee. It would be about as credible.

Let’s get this clear: KURT ANGLE WILL NEVER STEP INSIDE THE CAGE. He’s been talking about doing it for a decade, and it’s never going to happen. Angle is a great athlete and one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, but he’s 47 years old and would probably have trouble tapping out Warwick Davis. Angle is a tremendous athlete, but he has had a career full of injuries, including ones involving his neck. He does not belong in the cage.

Anyone who recalls the first season of the WWE’s Tough Enough (the show the UFC ripped off and called “The Ultimate Fighter”) knows that Angle got his backside handed to him by one Daniel Puder. Tough Enough was a pseudo-reality show and Angle challenged guys to wrestle him for real. Puder, who had MMA experience, got angle in a kimura and literally could have snapped his arm all the way back to the Gold Medal podium in Atlanta.

The pin wouldn’t happen in the cage, Kurt.

Angle got embarrassed on live TV in a segment that WWE fans will always remember. Yes, Angle is a better fighter than most guys on the street, as long as those guys aren’t trained MMA fighters. I don’t care how old they are. Ken Shamrock at 90 would beat Kurt Angle.

But that’s beside the point. Bellator had better not even think about sanctioning a fight with Angle. Who do they think they are, the UFC? Seriously, in light of all the news about Daniel Bryan retiring for concussions, has anyone examined CM Punk for brain injury? (Yes, the man is an egomaniac, but it’s something special to think he can walk in the UFC and do anything other than cash a pay check. God bless him for being man enough to try, but you have to question his sanity. Maybe if he started when he was 20 years old he could have been a top talent, but good lord, Phil, you can’t even get through a camp without three injuries).

Bellator is best to keep Angle in the broadcast booth and leave the fighting to the fighters and the professional wrestling to the professional wrestlers. Each sport is respectable and contains athletes. There’s no need to compare the toughness of each of its competitors. They are all athletes and we love them all differently.

Bellator certainly wants to compete with the UFC, but it should do it through signing the world’s most talented young talent, not engaging in spectacle MMA. No one benefits from that other than the two guys cashing a check at the end of the night.

Heck, truth be told, Kimbo Slice shouldn’t even be competing in Bellator. In terms of MMA standards, he’s hardly the best the sport can offer. Had Kenny Shamrock been strong enough to sink in the rear naked choke, he would have tapped Slice out. Slice is not lasting long with anyone with an ounce of MMA fighting talent, who’s under 50 years old.

If Angle wants to do anything, it should be to head back to the WWE for one last run and enjoy the accolades of getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Doing MMA is just a joke for publicity. Angle knows it. Everyone else should too.

Follow Joshua Molina on Twitter: @JECMolina.

Photo props to WWE.com