Kurt Angle Training for MMA

[Frank the Frowner]

http://www.setantasports.com/en/Spo...?facets/sport-space/great-britain-locale/ufc/

Kurt Angle has moved a step closer to making his long mooted switch to MMA after Pittsburgh Fight Club’s Eric Hibler confirmed the pro wrestling star is training at his state-of-the-art facility, setantasports.com can reveal.

Angle, 39, who shot to fame after winning Gold in freestyle wrestling at 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, is now learning the ‘ins and outs’ of the fight game in his native Pittsburgh.

“Kurt is an international superstar with a very busy schedule. When Kurt is in town he does train here,” Hibler revealed.

“He's very low profile and easy to talk to. Everyone likes him and he's the man when it comes to fired-up hard workouts.”

One of the staple traditions of MMA, moulding a world-class wrestler into a well-rounded fighting machine, is a task Angle and Hibler are well prepared for.

“Kurt is an amazing open-minded individual and his ability to focus on a task is world class, no matter what we are working on. However, MMA even though it relates, is very different from wrestling.

“Kurt must relearn strategy and tactics for better game play with real fighting. On the other hand, Kurt is a trainer’s dream. He was born to train and compete.

“For now, his wrestling gives him excellent penetration ability for takedown transitions and a strong ground sense to help his positioning for ground-and-pound and submission set-ups.”

While Angle accustoms himself with the finer intricacies of the sport and continues to light up the pro wrestling scene with TNA wrestling, he remains one of MMA’s hottest free agents.

His manager Dave Hawk said his star client is waiting for the right offer to come along: “Kurt's planning to participate in at least one MMA fight when he gets the right offer.

“To date he has not signed with any fight promotion.”

So, what do you think? Kurt's been talking about this for years now, and has yet to actually make any progress. He's said that he could beat Chuck Liddell earlier this year, in which Chuck of course laughed it off, saying that if he goes in trying to wrestle, he's going to get beaten. You can't be one-dimensional in MMA.

Combine that with the fact that he has a real bad neck, and one has to wonder if it's really in Kurt's best interest to continue training for MMA. He's always at risk of doing permanent damage to his neck while wrestling. In MMA, there is no way to "protect his neck" while engaged in a fight. His opponents won't care.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Is he still talking about this? I though this was all from his crazy post-WWE firing days. Great interviews.

It sure would be something to see. It would get TNA some really nice coverage. What's the bet he'll be fighting with a ''Broken freakin' neck'', even though he wouldn't be allowed to.

But I doubt Angle has any striking ability, and I definitely think he'll have less grappling ability than 12 years ago. But it would be a freak fight, a curio nothing more. I doubt UFC would touch him.

 

[Moon Knight]

Is he still talking about this? I though this was all from his crazy post-WWE firing days. Great interviews.

I wouldn’t say crazy days; MMA has become very popular and understand that Kurt Angle himself is a former amateur wrestler involved in pro-wrestling. The difference is pro-wrestling isn’t a legit competition so Angle maybe longing for some and MMA is the only option that could feed his ego and pad his wallet. Obviously amateur wrestling really isn’t mainstream so Angle couldn’t get a nice paycheck and media attention out of it, which I am sure he wants just as much as the legit competition.

It sure would be something to see. It would get TNA some really nice coverage. What's the bet he'll be fighting with a ''Broken freakin' neck'', even though he wouldn't be allowed to.

I really don’t believe TNA would push him to do such a thing, he has a ton of injuries and TNA doesn’t want him to get seriously hurt doing a legit fight with people like couture and lesnar who would knock his block off. If anything the reason he hasn’t joined yet is because TNA may have talked him out of it. Would TNA get some coverage out of this? I am sure they would, not that it matter because the people watching would be MMA fans and would likely not care so much about wrestling, but think of it this way; what would happen if he got seriously hurt? Not only would TNA lose a huge star but they would get negative press over letting Angle take such a risk, and that’s ignoring the fact they have used outside sports before to gain attention but this would be different as he isn’t Pacman Jones but one of their wrestlers with a good background. Still, looking at the risks involved for TNA they just outweigh any positives they would get from it.

But I doubt Angle has any striking ability, and I definitely think he'll have less grappling ability than 12 years ago. But it would be a freak fight, a curio nothing more. I doubt UFC would touch him.

UFC touched Brock Lesnar, but that’s different as he is younger and out of wrestling. Dana white has been quoted before as saying he doesn’t want to mix wrestling and MMA too much, who could blame him? Mixing the two may damage UFC’s credibility and make it look fake, so for that alone UFC would most likely balk at him. UFC also doesn’t need him to get media coverage, but other less known promotions may take the risk just to get some air time. They might not get much, he has deteriorated from where he was and is a health risk due to his injuries mostly his neck. I don’t doubt he has some striking ability left and I think he has enough to get the job done; he could focus mostly on submission grappling. This may not require too much strength as with submissions it is more about leverage than anything which is why I could make a man tap out who is 3 times my size, once you get leverage on him he will tap easily. Kurt is still rather agile and he could do fine if he picked the right style and the right opponents.

 

[Kasey]

This would've been a viable move for Kurt...ten years ago. The game has evolved WAY too much for him to make any sort of a relevant impact, especially when his medical history is taken into account. It's one good spill on his head or neck and that's all she wrote. I can tell he's chomping at the bit because of his Olympic credentials and because of Lesnar's deal. He forgets Lesnar's age, though. And yes, there will be those who say look at Couture and what he did starting at age 34. Angle is well past that and could only hope to end up being a 230 lb. version of Josh Koscheck (circa 2005). He'd be a lay 'n' pray specialist of the Nth degree. He should stick to what he's doing and stop talking smack about fighters that could hand him his ass in a sweet moment. That's not even considering the likely overblown money he'd want for a fight (which any promoter who isn't a dumbfuck like Gary Shaw).

 

[HBK-aholic]

I don't think this would work out. Pro-Wrestling and MMA are 2 completely different things. You could argue Angle has what it takes because of the whole Gold medal business, which is a good argument. However, he wrestlers in TNA with such a different style to MMA that I think it'd be hard for him to get into, and he won't succeed to the extent he has with TNA/WWE.