Couple articles about Cung

[Cimaroon]

One in the link then follow to the MMAJunkie page.http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/mma_experts/post/Cung-Le-has-gone-Hollywood;_ylt=AnOXX13YzyLlOqxMdZ9v2Z89Eo14?urn=mm a,125664

[GeneChing]

Cung Le Takes Center Stage On NBC

SAN JOSE, Calif. ?Strikeforce World Middleweight (185 lb. limit) Champion, Cung Le, will seize the spotlight during an all-new “Strikeforce on NBC” episode on Saturday night.

The special, 30-minute program, devoted entirely to the one-of-a-kind knockout artist, will showcase Le’s stoppages of Mike Altman and “Mr. Unbreakable” Brian Warren and will revisit his crushing knockouts of “The Ultimate Fighter” season three veteran, Sam “The Squeeze” Morgan, and Tony “The Freak” Fryklund.

Also included in the show is a feature segment that touches on the personal life of Le, who fled a war-torn Vietnam, just days before the fall of Saigon, as a baby in his mother’s arms in 1975.

Le’s victories over Altman and Warren were ranked number one and two, respectively, according to the results of an online poll that gave fans the opportunity to vote for their all-time favorite Strikeforce knockout on the promotion’s official website, www.strikeforce.com, last week.

A former junior college and high school wrestling star, Le has pioneered the Chinese stand-up fighting art of San Shou, which aided his run to a perfect 16-0 record in the sport of professional kickboxing and an International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) world championship. His kickboxing conquests, which included three victories in K-1 North America “Superfights,” have aired repeatedly on ESPN and ESPN2.

Two years after making his highly-anticipated mixed martial arts (MMA) debut, Le notched what is undoubtedly the greatest win of his career - a third round TKO of former UFC middleweight champion and MMA legend, Frank Shamrock on March 29th of this year. The live SHOWTIME televised victory earned Le the Strikeforce middleweight crown.

Le recently returned home from a two month stay in Berlin, where he completed his third acting stint for the silver screen, a supporting role in the science fiction thriller, “Pandorum,” which co-stars award-winning actors Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma, Alpha Dog). The film is slated for release next fall.

"Strikeforce on NBC," the first 52-week mixed martial arts series in network television history, airs every Saturday, immediately following NBC’s hit poker tournament series, "Poker After Dark" (check local listings). MMA legend Ken Shamrock and award-winning ESPN announcer, Lon McEachern, co-host each program and provide expert, play-by-play commentary.

We've discussed Cung's move to films in my 2008 July/August (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=769) cover story (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=773) on him. We've also followed up on his films in the media forum.
Pandorum (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52570)
Tekken (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41428)
Fighting (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50719)

[Oso]

just curious as to what others might think about doing that since he's the preiminent example of TMA in MMA at this time.

anyways, i just finally got a look at the Le vs. Shamrock vid and noted Cung's use of a side kick to continuously jam and post off of Shamrock. I thought it was interesting...and certainly not some sort of example of 'oooh, look at the CMA side kick' but you just don't see it used that often.

thoughts, anyone?

Le seemed to keep a little more of a sideways posture to his opponent vs. the usual, slightly more frontal posture many use.

this would make it easier to throw the side kick versus the front kick/teep due to the starting position of the hips...

[Lucas]

Ive always wondered why people never used side kicks in MMA. of course the answer would be that its 'to risky' or 'not high enough success ratio'

of course all that means is not many have tried, out of fear of getting owned of course.

but cung shows us its very possible, and also very effective.

i remember it was his 2nd or 3rd mma fight where he just kept feeding the guy sidekicks, then got a TKO with a roundhouse to the body....side kick of course wearing down the guys body for the rh.

i vote for a cung thread for sure. hes my fav! :D

[sanjuro_ronin]

Ive always wondered why people never used side kicks in MMA. of course the answer would be that its 'to risky' or 'not high enough success ratio'

of course all that means is not many have tried, out of fear of getting owned of course.

but cung shows us its very possible, and also very effective.

i remember it was his 2nd or 3rd mma fight where he just kept feeding the guy sidekicks, then got a TKO with a roundhouse to the body....side kick of course wearing down the guys body for the rh.

i vote for a cung thread for sure. hes my fav! :D

The majority of people in MMA come from MT or have MT as their striking art and while MT does have the Side kick, it isn't trained as much as the round, the round being more "versatile".
The ones that use it will typically have TKD backgrounds or old timer KB backgrounds.

[Pork Chop]

actually, real muay thai just considers it a push kick.
if you watch kaoklai, the way he throws his push kick is like a toes-up side kick.

muay thai folks use the push kick as much as sanshou people use the side kick, maybe more.
it's their jab - a range finder, a counter, a distance-keeper.

I don't know that anybody uses it as a serious ko kick.
it causes damage, but not usually a fight ender.

in mma you got guys with "mma stand up".
They just focus on what works well in an mma match instead of learning the art from the ground up.
many drop the push kick because they consider it easy to catch and be taken down.
a lot focus on "fight enders" - the higher ko %age moves.
some folks jab, but it's considered less risky than push/side kicks.

[sanjuro_ronin]

My kicks are never pushes, one time I side kicked a guy in the face and his head came right off !!
True Story !
:D

[Lucas]

what ever man. i was there and i distinctly remember it being attached by a flap of skin in the back. :mad:

[friday]

...nearly headless? you need to work on your kicks more...I always kick them clean off...:cool:

[Oso]

i think it's part of what I see happening little by little: everyone is getting used to the status quo and for those that have a little bit deeper tool box it's an opportunity to utilize something unexpected. BJJ dominated the early UFC until everyone got on the band wagon and did some grapple training and now there is a better baseline of skills all around.

most people train that baseline of skills and when you do that you get used to certain methods of attacks and defenses.

what I honestly don't get is why it appears that Cung's opponents are reluctant to close with him...i mean, yea, he hits and kicks hard and has great ability to stay at the range he likes but still, seem like someone would have taken him down good at some point...is he being sheltered from higher level grapplers till he or his trainers thinks he's up to speed on the ground?

and, ftr, I like him a lot too...i'm not attacking him, I think he's a great example of what happens when someone with a high level of skill and a different set of skills comes in to the game.

[MasterKiller]

is he being sheltered from higher level grapplers till he or his trainers thinks he's up to speed on the ground?.
There is some talk that perhaps people were offered bonuses to keep it standing.

[sanjuro_ronin]

There is some talk that perhaps people were offered bonuses to keep it standing.

Actually, you will notice that there is far more stand up in MMA nowadays than there ever has been.
Fact is, stand up is more exciting for the fans and as such, I am sure there are "suggestions" on the part of the people running these things to keep it standing as long as you can.

[MasterKiller]

Actually, you will notice that there is far more stand up in MMA nowadays than there ever has been.That's because they adjust the rules to benefit stand-up guys.

Fact is, stand up is more exciting for the fans and as such, I am sure there are "suggestions" on the part of the people running these things to keep it standing as long as you can.
Elite XC offered Petruzulli a bonus to keep the Kimbo fight standing because they were trying to build name brands to get the business running. I wouldn't be surprised if Cung's opponents got the same deal.

[GeneChing]

You're forgetting that Cung's roots are in sanshou. Sanshou is all about takedowns. You score points for takedowns. Accordingly, any sanshou player worth his salt trains evasions for takedowns. Sure, we're all eager to see Cung's ground game, but you got to get too him first, and given his sanshou background, that's no easy task.

[MasterKiller]

You're forgetting that Cung's roots are in sanshou. Sanshou is all about takedowns. You score points for takedowns. Accordingly, any sanshou player worth his salt trains evasions for takedowns. Sure, we're all eager to see Cung's ground game, but you got to get too him first, and given his sanshou background, that's no easy task.
I'm not forgetting anything. I think San Shou is the best format to train striking for MMA because of the throws.

but you know who else trains takedowns? Wrestlers. Their whole style is based around it. And they get taken down all the time.

I like Cung. I want Cung to succeed in MMA. BUT, I wouldn't be surprised if his MMA opponent's were offered a bonus to keep it standing.

[Lucas]

wrestlers arent getting punched and kicked in the head tho either.

i dont know either way if this is cungs opponents were promted to keep it up. i believe that frank and cung had an agreement to keep it standing, and we saw where that got frank.

personally i think that cungs sanshou and wrestling background are going to make it really hard for guys to take him down, unless they are really, really good. also the time frame between cungs fights, the guys hes fought, and the outcomes are giving him a lot of time to work his bjj.

at this point it can go either way for me. whether it was all cungs skill at keeping it standing, or if there was an agreement, ( i kind of doubt, because in each match there were take down attempts that cung either countered, shut down, or got back to his feet quickly) it just goes to his benefit in giving him much needed time to get better at bjj. hes had a good amount of time to get better at bjj, and i think he will suprise people when he does get taken to the ground game. hes good at what he does, which is fighting. it only makes sense that he would pick up bjj pretty well.

[Oso]

to be clear about what I meant:

i spent a little while last weekend watching several (not all) of the clips of Le on NBC's website.

fwiw, and imho, it seemed like there were plenty of opportunities to enter the clinching range that were not taken by Le's opponents.

while Le may have good to great takedown D, is it better than his striking offense? given everything, including the evidence from his fights, it just seems that there would have at least been more ATTEMPTS to get inside his excellent long and mid-range striking.

[Lucas]

to be clear about what I meant:

i spent a little while last weekend watching several (not all) of the clips of Le on NBC's website.

fwiw, and imho, it seemed like there were plenty of opportunities to enter the clinching range that were not taken by Le's opponents.

while Le may have good to great takedown D, is it better than his striking offense? given everything, including the evidence from his fights, it just seems that there would have at least been more ATTEMPTS to get inside his excellent long and mid-range striking.

I agree with you on that. i feel that both are possibilities. cungs undefeated ss record, mix that with his ss fighting skills and wrestling skills, gives him a somewhat powerful reputation and skillset. plus he hits like a truck. mix that with the general calabre of fighters he was up against. not that the guys arent good, but he has way more experience, as being an undefeated fighter in a circuit. we all know that with frank they wanted to keep it up, but i do remember when frank DID go for a takedown, cung stuffed it back in his face.

[Lucas]

also, if there were agreements to keep it standing, this ALSO would work in cungs favor in regard to him being able to more thoroughly develop his BJJ for future matches.

[Cimaroon]

wow, some serious accusations there.... Or am I naive to belive that other fighters havent been offrered bonuses to keep the fight up!?!

[mawali]

Becasue Cung Le is not a puncher he is good enough to be the standup champ that he is! On the extreme level, he need to work on BJJ (newaza) or similar groundwork strategies.

[BrokenTitanium]

Cung Le has awesome leg work and extremely powerful legs also.