Strikeforce's Cung Le is No Anderson Silva

It is unfair to judge a fighter like Cung Le, as not being a Elite Mix Martial artist. Can anyone even say what the expectations are to be one? To each it’s own…
My opinion of an Elite MMA is one who has proven to be a well rounded Martial artist and uses that to win fights. In this era of MMA is that Elite that he can execute the kicks that he does with the power he commits behind them and be 6-1 so far in his career. Yes Le has much to improve with his training, but sticking to works bests to win fights is okay. Some techniques need to be revaluated, but Le set the stage to earn his great reputation in only 6 fights in the world of MMA. There is nothing wrong with someone losing a fight, it is human nature at it’s best and for the record, Anderson Silva is an Elite MMA but shared a loss to a simple scissor take down leading to submission…or have we forgot?

wtf are you talking about? Silva, in no way, uses kicks similar to Cung. In no way.

And Cung’s lack of a punching game doesn’t exclude him from being a world-class MMA fighter, any more than Rampage’s lack of a ground game exclude him. Unless you’re also implying people like Rampage aren’t world class either…

i agree with your comments man. i was actually in the gym jump roping to this fight. At first i was like man he has some bad ass kicks. but then i started to think about how anderson silva just man handled forrest griffin. not that griffin kicks ass great as le does, but anderson is just light years away in quickness and precision. I think he would be cung le in the first round at his own game, and then make him pay with a real ground and pound. That goes for a lot of division though. GSP, Penn, Fedor, and Anderson Silva are almost impossible to beat, because they dont want to be beat. They train ten times harder than their opponents.

yeah yeah son

Are you serious? Sounds like another keyboard warrior article.

I think what Le is trying to demonstrate is that a one-dimensional fighter can dominate in a mixed martial art setting. Le has been around MMA a few years now, and it’s not rocket science to learn basic ground work to control your opponent properly, transition to different dominant positions, and threaten with a few arm submissions and triangles. All I can conclude is the Le is a trying to prove he can do without them (either because he can or because he’s arrogant).

What Le has been hinting at all along is, “I don’t need a punches or a ground game to dominate in MMA.”

As for his cardio, I think he’s under-training for these C Level fighters. When he went against Frank, someone known for his cardio, Le trained his cardio better.

All in all, Le just isn’t taking this sport seriously. He’s doing a half-ass job. Elite fighters don’t do half ass job.

I think Le is his own worst enemy. Look at all that flab around his gut. As fast as he was, he still looked a little sluggish. Plus, he treated Smith like he couldn’t hurt him. This could be a wake up call for Le, but then again he’s 37 years old, so maybe he’s should retire. I still would like to see him loose the weight and then take on Silva. That would be one badass fight.

I would ask anyone that believes Cung is an elite fighter to look at who he has beaten. The name Shamrock stands out but even though I hate to admit it, he is aging badly for the sport.

As for the kicks I mentioned, I was not stating that Silva and Cung throw the same type of kicks. I was stating that they both use kicks that come from odd angles, they use them more than the average mixed martial artist and they use them more effectivley than most. Thus making them similar in a few fashions.

Cung is not good enuff for cage-fighting. He does not have the techniques and know-how
to take a fighter out on the ground. Kicks alone will not win the fight ! Such moves are
great in a movie setting or demonstration. Cung can not take a solid punch.
Conclusion: stay as a coach, actor, business man and get out of the cage-fighting business.

my grandmother can bit cung le against scott smith he looks fat and over weight.

All this talk about Cung le being one-dimensional in the world of MMA. It is not that he is a one dimensional fighter but he chose to be one, dont forget that he has a black belt in tae kwon do, an all American wrestling champ in his early years, Greco- Roman, great Judo, and had an intermediate level of jujitsu under his belt. So yea he can be considered an MMA elite fighter eventhough he does not want to showcase his other skills but rather use the skill that he trains for so long. As we can see in MMA, fighters can easily get caught in a submission choke or any type of ground game with a slight mistake so that is where Cung is a smart fighter to let it stand no matter what. The Art of War taught us that any battle, one on one or millions against millions, a fighter should fight with what they know instead fighting in the opponents territory. Why did the Vietnam war ended the way it did eventhough the American outweigh the Vietnamese 10 to 1 in skills, weapon, technology and all that makes the most powerful military in the world. Its because the Vietnamese made the American fight their fight.

cung le probably needs another 2 years off to recover after smith gave him a good beating silva is probably laughing his socks that he got beat by a nobody infact i the whole of the mma fighters are all laughing.

Smith is known for short hooks and it was an obvious mistake for Cung to dip in for a take down right into Smith’s power area. However lets be clear up to that point he completely dominated and was in fact putting on a show for the fans with so many spinning back kicks. I would agree this was cool to watch but maybe not the smartest way to win a fight I think the only real mistake Le made was he has a big heart and wanted to put on a big show for the fans. I truly believe he will not make this mistake again. !! Whomever his next opponent is one thing is for sure so many fans can’t wait to see it. If he takes the same power he used to break Franks arm and puts those strikes to work on opponents arms and leg kicks watch out.

No one can win all but there is a fight you will need to do anything to destroy your opponents.
But if you look carefully, Anderson Silva always lost to Asian guys… so think again.

@Thanh
Can we talk about Cung Le’s Hands now how he out boxed and stunned the supposedly better boxer. Scott was so confused about Cung’s hands he forgot about his Kicks

i think Cung le need to learn more jujitsu something from silva so he can do better job.

Hi,

Fighting is about to win on opponent. Why Mike Tyson used his teeth to fight his opponent.
So what was wrong with that ? So with the fist you are already a death meet.

Cung Le has proved to be one of the top fighters in his career of kick-boxing, wrestling and Shanshou. He is extremely skilled in various kinds of kicks which help to keep safe distance from the enemy. His Shanshou skills prevent him from being taken down as well as take down opponent to throw them off their offense. He has high flexibility and was able to dodge and block most attacks from opponents (take a look objectively at his previous fight video and you will see). He had focused a lot more on his punches when he got to MMA by hiring boxing coaches. He also started to train BJJ and got to inter-immediate level, which however is nothing compared to other MMA fighters ones like Anderson Silva. Thus, if somehow opponent manage to take him down and performed submission such as arm lock or leg lock, Cung would have a hard time.
That is why he does not want to bring the game to ground fight and does what he does best. Because of his ability to use kicks and Sanshou to keep distance reduce the risk of groundwork(but in which he actually has experience on in the past).
I can’t wait for the match where Cung Le vs Anderson Silva. That will be one hell of a game!