As the title says. Once he's secured his gold medals, if he'd have gone to MMA, how would he have done?
Sky would have been the limit.... Given the sheer chaos of the sport at the time he would probably have a few losses here and there, but I'd expect a career at the very least on par with Coutures.
Definitely not at that time, look at who the dominant figures were in terms of Coleman, Randleman and Couture. There is of course the chance that Angle lacked the cardio as we found with Coleman early on but other than that I think he could have dominated also.
I am less optimistic than most. Just have this odd feeling he would have had issues with strikers and guys with strong sub games. He would have had huge issues with those HW's back in PRIDE. Do not know if he could have made 205 but doubt it. Kurt found his niche TALKING about MMA rather than actually doing. it preserved his mystique and kept the what if illusion in tact. Keram Ibragim of Egypt was a way more dynamic wrestler than Angle and look what happened to him in MMA. FYI I am a huge proponent of elite wrestlers going into MMA but I just have serious questions about how well Angle would have done.
Wrestlers in general have an excellent base from which to build a successful career. But as people have pointed out, the whole "punchee in the face-ee" can change things quite a bit. I've seen the same thing happen to good jiujitsu guys that fell apart once some gorilla started looping shots into the kisser. If he was mentally tough enough there's no reason why he couldn't be successful.
I think he'd have struggled with the striking and stand up aspect Other than that he'd have been alright
MMA heavyweights are terrible, real bottom of the barrel level athletes. Just look at the current UFC heavyweight champ, a failed baseball player. So someone with actual athletic talent like Angle should be able to do well.
Brock Lesnar, a guy who turns his back and cowers if someone hits him too hard, still managed to become UFC champ.
Well.... a big reason Borg won was cause he's huge. Kurt couldn't just hit a spear and spam hammerfists
