Ex-WWE Champion Kurt Angle says UFC President Dana White offered him a fight in 2006

Former WWE Champion Kurt Angle has revealed that UFC President Dana White had offered him a fight against Daniel Puder. Kurt, while speaking on his official podcast The Kurt Angle Show, said that White had offered him to fight in the UFC against his bitter rival Daniel Puder, with whom he had an episode where the latter almost broke his arm during a WWE fight in 2004. The former Olympic gold medalist said that White believed the fight would be "very intriguing" from a public interest standpoint but he refused to take the offer because of the incident that occurred between him and Puder in the WWE. 

'He gave me a good opponent' 

Angle further stated that at first, he refused to believe that White would offer him a fight against Puder because he knew he could defeat the 39-year-old wrestler. Angle said he knew White was caring of his career and that is why he offered him a fight against Puder, whom he could possibly beat.

"He wasn’t very specific on saying we’re going to protect you, but the opponent that he gave me at the beginning was a good opponent. Very intriguing from a public interest standpoint, especially from a pro wrestling fan standpoint. Very intriguing because he didn’t have a lot of experience in MMA, he only fought a couple of times, but I had a little episode with him in the WWE," Angle said in his podcast as quoted by WrestlingINC. 

"That was Daniel Puder, and when Dana said that to me I said, ‘Are you serious? Daniel Puder, that’s all?’ Not that I thought Daniel Puder was easy because he actually had my arm trapped and he would have broken my arm when we did our little episode on SmackDown. I just knew that I could beat Daniel Puder," Angle added. 

As far as the episode between Angle and Puder is concerned, it happened during a SmackDown! contest in 2004, where the 52-year-old was up against finalists of Tough Enough. Angle fought against the winner of Squat Thrust, Chris Nawrocki, whom he defeated by giving a guillotine choke. After beating Nawrocki, he challenged other finalists of the show. Puder took the challenge and came into the ring to fight Angle. During the fight, Puder almost broke Angle's arm with a Kimura lock. After his contract with the WWE came to an end, Angle signed to fight in the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.  

(Image: AP)