Photo of Kurt Angle after winning the Olympic gold medal at 100 kg in men's freestyle at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga.

No Holds Barred: Kurt Angle on 2012 Olympic Wrestling Trials and New Film, Warrior

Click here for No Holds Barred interview with Kurt Angle 

On this audio edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman speaks with 1996 Olympic freestyle wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle. He also has an important role playing Koba, an undefeated Russian mixed martial arts fighter, in the new dramatic film, "Warrior" (www.warriorfilm.com).

We spoke with Kurt Angle on Friday on a media conference call about his role as Koba. The character is billed as an Olympic gold medalist wrestler and a world sambo champion, thus making him a sort of combination of Kurt Angle and Fedor Emelianenko. The critically-acclaimed "Warrior" will have its theatrical release in the U.S. on September 9.

Although he is now 42 years old and has not wrestled in real competition for a decade and a half, Kurt Angle also said that he plans to return to freestyle wrestling for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials. That event will be held April 21 and 22, 2012, at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on the University of Iowa campus.

We spoke with him about his plans to compete in the Olympic Trials, the growth of the popularity of wrestling in America, why he claims that he will not wrestle in any tournament prior to the Olympic Trials, and more.

Also, No Holds Barred is available through iTunes at: 
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=150801513&s=143441

The show is in MP3 format, so may take some time to download.

The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", by musician Ian Carpenter (http://iancarpenter.com/).