During a recent episode of his podcast, The Kurt Angle Show, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle addressed the topic of why he has never competed against former UFC Champion Ken Shamrock under MMA rules.
Because of the issues with Angle’s neck, the fight was ultimately never completed, according to Angle.
“There was no way I was able to do it. I had no strength in my upper body. If you remember my thing with Daniel Puder, I couldn’t do three push-ups at that particular time. Dan caught me in an armbar … I was in trouble, if he would have kept going, if he wouldn’t have pinned himself, I would have ended up breaking my arm,” he said. “I was losing circulation to my arms. So my arms got weaker … and got smaller, and I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t bench 135 pounds, I was weak, my upper body was so weak.”
Shamrock attempted to engage Angle in a mixed martial arts bout through Bellator, but the Olympic Gold Medalist was required to take it easy at that time due to the fact that his body was in poor condition.
“I said, ‘Listen, I am not in any position to fight right now … Don’t get me wrong, I can still take you down,’” he revealed. “Ken said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take it easy on you,’ and I thought, ‘wait a minute, did we just fix a fight?’ Ken said, ‘Well, I’m not going to take it that easy on you, if I have to finish you off, I’m going to finish you off.’”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
