On 29 March, Cung Le (6-0) forced Frank Shamrock(23-9-2) to quit in his corner with a broken arm from Le’s relentless kicking offense. Le won the Strikeforce middleweight title. Though his two children were sick, Le took time to talk to Fighters.com.
Fighters.com: Your MMA career has always been leading to the battle of San Jose with Shamrock. Now it’s over. Is there relief, a sense of accomplishment? Are you thinking about what’s next?
Cung Le: Relief and accomplishment. I’m just trying to take a break, but no break yet. I’m not thinking about what’s next. There’s a lot of negotiating and setup in an organization to schedule a fight; and, I’m just letting Strikeforce handle that.
Fighters.com: It didn’t look like Shamrock had much of a strategy more than “let’s see what happens”. Did you perceive he was trying to set-up anything or had a notion of a particular weakness?
Cung Le: My coach, who used to coach Frank, said [Shamrock] looked as good as he’s ever seen him. He was looking for openings and I just didn’t give him any.
Fighters.com: Did Shamrock do what you expected?
Cung Le: Yeah. The only problem was that my coach told me he dips when he punches; so, a couple of times I got caught because I thought he was going to take me down.
Fighters.com: It seems like your kicks snap more from the knee than the kicks taught to most mixed martial artists, which are more the roundhouse Muay Thai kick. Do you notice that? How do you analyze that?
Cung Le: That’s my secret! I’m not giving that up.
Fighters.com: Let’s be objective. How’s your ground game?
Cung Le: I’m just trying to be the most complete martial artist. No one comes to see me submit people. People want to seek knockouts and kicks. I can submit people. I took Sam Morgan to the ground and had him in a crucifix.
Fighters.com: Shamrock was grinning. Do you think he didn’t take you seriously?
Cung Le: I was having a good time too; but, never was it not a fight.
Fighters.com: Shamrock is going to ask for a rematch, if he hasn’t already. Is there any reason to rematch him immediately?
Cung Le: I will give him one because he gave me this opportunity. I owe him that.
Fighters.com: After the fight you mentioned your helicopter flight out of Vietnam under gun fire. Was that something you thought about immediately or something you planned to say?
Cung Le: Definitely, it’s apart of my training. It helps motivate me.
Fighters.com: Have you been back to Vietnam since leaving? Do you enjoy returning?
Cung Le: I’ve been back twice. My dad lives there. I enjoy it. It’s very emotional for me.
Fighters.com: Under the ProElite umbrella, you have fellow middleweight champions Robbie Lawler and Kala Kolohe Hose. Would you like to call either of them out?
Cung Le: No. I haven’t even thought about fighting them.
Fighters.com: Have you faced anyone in MMA tougher than your toughest San Shou fight?
Cung Le: Frank Shamrockis my toughest opponent. San Shou is different. The referee stops you after each take down. MMA is much harder.
Fighters.com: San Shou is an exhibition sport at this Summer’s Olympics. Any plans to go to Beijing?
Cung Le: No. There’s a lot of politics. They decided they want to play politics and I decided I didn’t want to be involved. Under me we got four bronze and two silver. Under the current coach, no one placed.
Fighters.com: Now that you’ve got some downtime, how do you split up your time between training, your gym, your acting career, and family?
Cung Le: I’m just trying to find some down time! I’ve got two boys that are sick; you can hear in the background. I’m sure everyone knows about my divorce and I got full custody. I’ve got a lot of great people around me. I don’t mind doing interviews. Media and my fans are what got me here.
Congratulations Cung on being Fighters.com featured fighter!
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