MMA Diehards has posted an interview on YouTube with Kurt Angle that was shot at last month's Arnold Classic:
After plugging his new multi level marketing/specialty foods venture, the subject of MMA came up. Nick Thomas at Bloody Elbow grabbed the choice quotes:
"I just did my physical this past year with Dana White. The problem is I'm not allowed to wrestle and fight. Dana White will not permit that."
"I’m a UFC die hard. Strikeforce yeah, I looked that way... but the one I want to fight for is Dana White."
"I do want to do the UFC, the MMA thing and hopefully God willing it will be in the next year or two."
"I don't consider myself a pro-wrestler, I consider myself an Olympic gold medalist. Brock [Lesnar] and Bobby [Lashley] were great wrestlers but they weren't anywhere near where I was. I'm in the top 5 of the greatest amateur wrestlers of all time."
"Some of my fellow Olympians are Randy Couture, unfortunately he didn't walk away with a medal in the Olympics but he's still an incredible wrestler. I would love to see how I would fare against him."
"Brock Lesnar is the real deal, he's an animal. Bobby Lashley is up and coming and is going to be great. But I don't know where I'll be, light heavyweight or heavyweight. I can make either one like that."
"I train at the Pittsburgh Fight Club. My trainer is Eric Hibler. Not a lot of people know who he is, but that's a good thing. What I'm going to use is what I do best and that is wrestling and ground and pound."
Ever since his departure from WWE in 2006 Angle's talk about fighting has been a lot of talk and no action. He was even very close to deals with multiple promoters at different points that he pulled out of at the last minute. While it was talked about, the idea that he's too broken down to get licensed was considered a non-issue according to Dave Meltzer, who noted that Don Frye and Ken Shamrock were cleared in spite of being comparable physical messes. That was over 3 years ago, though, and he's now reached the point where Meltzer, who's as cynical about bodybuilding drug use as anyone, is under the impression that Angle's spine is in such bad shape that he honestly needs to inject human growth hormone to function. There's also the little-mentioned fact that Angle had considered taking time off from WWE to try to make the the OIympic wrestling team in 2004, only to drop the idea after a session at the team's training center where he realized that the talent and technique level had advanced so much in 8 years that he shouldn't even make a go of it.
It's another in a long line of wacky Angle interviews about going into MMA (like the one where he claimed that he would be unbeatable because he had a secret, never before used method of blocking punches), but it's interesting to see him talking about it after seemingly giving up the ghost for awhile. Also, it's nice to see him admit that nobody's heard of his camp. When he first mentioned training there awhile back, nobody knew what the hell he was talking about.