I called him (White) a couple of year later – I was getting a little tired of wrestling – I said "Hey, I’m ready", so we had another meeting and he had me do a physical, and he threw a great offer at me, but said "I need you in four and a half weeks."
I said "I can"t do that. You’ve gotta give me 3-6 months," but he said "I need you in four a half weeks," so I said "Well then, we’re not going to be able to do this."
We didn’t talk for a while, but now we’re back to being good friends.
The reason Dana White wanted me so quickly though, is because he wanted to put me in the next available PPV against Kimbo Slice.
For those of you that don't know Angle, he was the 1996 Olympic heavyweight wrestling gold medal winner that transitioned to pro wrestling in the aftermath. He's also an actor in the MMA-themed movie Warrior. He's flirted with the idea of doing MMA for years, and mentions in that article that he's spoken to MMA organizations five times about it (two of the five were with the UFC).I said "I can"t do that. You’ve gotta give me 3-6 months," but he said "I need you in four a half weeks," so I said "Well then, we’re not going to be able to do this."
We didn’t talk for a while, but now we’re back to being good friends.
The reason Dana White wanted me so quickly though, is because he wanted to put me in the next available PPV against Kimbo Slice.
Now it's plausible that Angle might have been brought into the UFC at some point, but not at the point he's talking about. And certainly not to fight Mr. Ferguson, who was released from the UFC in May 2010 after a loss to Matt Mitrione. Angle is now in the process of training to make the 2012 US Olympic wrestling team apparently, and I wish him luck with that. I'm sure the stories that come out of that run will be hilariously inaccurate too.