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In an alternate timeline, we might have seen Kimbo Slice and Kurt Angle face off on the Heavyweights season of The Ultimate Fighter.

How close did WWE legend Kurt Angle come to fighting in the UFC? So close that there were three offers on the table from the mixed martial arts company.

Angle is the subject of a new documentary on Peacock entitled ‘Angle,’ which debuts on September 2nd, 2023. To promote the event, the Olympic wrestling gold medalist sat down with ESPN to detail all the times he nearly became a fighter in the UFC.

“First time was right after the Olympics in 1996,” Angle said. “Dana White wasn’t involved with the UFC back then. They came to me and they gave me their best contract, and it wasn’t a very good contract. It was ten fights for $150,000. That’s $15,000 per fight. And that was the highest they were giving to the fighters for the fights.”

“I was like, ‘You know what, that doesn’t sound right. I love fighting, but I don’t love it that much to get my butt kicked for 15 grand.’”

Thirteen years later in 2009, the UFC would come knocking with a half-million dollar offer to put Kurt Angle on The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights opposite Kimbo Slice.

“I considered it,” Angle recalled. “And I said ‘Well, Dana, you don’t pay those guys to compete on TV.’ And he said ‘I know but I’ll give you half a million to be on the show. And then I’ll give you this contract, a six fight deal regardless of whether you win it, The Ultimate Fighter, or not. You’ll have a contract when it’s over.’ And I thought about it.”

“At that point in my life I was 41 years old. I broke my neck five times. I sat back and I realized, I started training for it a little bit, and I realized ‘I’m past my prime, I can’t do this.’ So I had to turn it down.”

Flash forwards a few more years to 2011, and Angle was inspired by Brock Lesnar’s run to give the UFC a try. Unfortunately (or fortunately, given his age), Kurt wasn’t able to pass the medical tests required to get licensed to fight.