MMA News and UFC Betting Odds

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 Web site, 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.

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Cung Le, MMA News, Strikeforce

“Right now I’m just going to focus on the movies because I got like three other movies lined up. I’m a martial artist first, so I come up through MMA, and I’m very grateful. I know where my roots are, but because of MMA I’m able to do this, so I got to take advantage of it. We’ll see me back in action sometime soon or sometime down the line.”

– Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le talks with MMArated.com about potentially sitting out all of 2009 to focus on his movie career. He already has two movies set to be released in the near future, including the big screen version of the popular video game “Tekken” in which Le will play the role of Marshall Law. With three more movies waiting to be shot it could be a while before Strikeforce puts on another middleweight title fight. It’s already been nearly nearly eight months since he captured the title from Frank Shamrock in his hometown of San Jose. And another year away from competition would surely hurt the momentum the 36-year-old has built up to this point in his career.

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Cung Le, MMA News, Strikeforce, UFC Quick Quotes

Cung Le, MMA Fighting Videos

Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le is featured on the cover of this months Black Belt magazine.

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Cung Le, MMA News, Outside The Cage, Strikeforce

Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le (6-0) graces the cover of the December issue for Black Belt magazine.

The talented Vietnamese striker and Tae Kwon Do black belt has not competed since capturing his title from Frank Shamrock back in March. He recently stated that he’ll stay on the sidelines and continue to be out of action until early 2009 because of other commitments, including his role as Marshall Law in the big screen Hollywood adaptation of the popular video game Tekken.

The December issue of Black Belt is now on sale right here.

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Cung Le, MMA News, Strikeforce

Cung Le, MMA Fighting Videos, Strikeforce

“I’m not sure if you watched the last couple UFC’s. I cornered one guy and he (Dana White) stuck me right next to BJ’s mom. He’s talked to me on the down-low because I do have a two year, four or five fight contract left with Strikeforce. My promoter is willing to be like, hey Gracie went into the UFC and fought Matt Hughes. We’re willing to do that too, but is Dana willing to do that? When I first sat down with Dana, he was like, I want you to fight. I want you to sign a six fight deal. I was like, I can’t do that, I have four fights left with Strikeforce and now it’s down to three. We’re at the three mark so let’s see where it goes. But of course, like you said, Anderson Silva is pound for pound ranked number one, but what I see is all four of his losses were to Asians. Those Asians are not scared of him. They will come in and they will engage to fight. Everyone in the UFC who is fighting him is fighting scared. I mean, I’m gonna go in there and I’m either gonna win or I’m gonna lose. It’s how am I gonna win or how am I gonna lose, because when I walk out of there I want to be able to carry my head high. I have nothing to lose. Anderson Silva is favored to win. I got nothing to lose.

-Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le fields a question about a possible superfight with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. It’s no secret that UFC President Dana White doesn’t like to cross-promote with other organizations, but everybody wants to see if there is a 185 pound man in the world who can contend with “The Spider.” Some think Cung Le is that man, but is it ever going to happen? I say probably not. What say you?

Reported by MMAmania.com staff writer James Ianotti

Cung Le, MMA News, Strikeforce

Cung Le, MMA Fighting Videos

Strikeforce has issued a press release announcing that the promotion’s middleweight champion Cung Le will be appearing on ESPNews at 5:10 p.m. ET on “The Hot List.” While on the show, Le will talk about the explosive growth of the sport of mixed martial arts and whether MMA has Olympic potential. Le won the Strikeforce middleweight title [...]

Cung Le, MMA News, Strikeforce

Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le will make an appearance on ESPNEWS this afternoon at around 5:10 p.m. ET., talking mixed martial arts with the the “Worldwide Leader In Sports” on the “The Hot List” program.

The champ will more than likely also promote the movies he’s been involved with recently. He’ll be playing Marshall Law in the big screen version of the popular video game “Tekken,” which is done filming and in the production phase.

Le has also been cast in the film, “Fighting” that stars Terrence Howard and will be out sometime this year. In addition, he has a leading role in a science fiction project co-starring Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. And apparently Le earned the last gig with Quaid and Foster on his acting ability alone.

Pretty impressive.

I doubt this means we’ve seen the last of Cung Le in the Strikeforce cage though. In fact, Frank Shamrock spoke during a conference call today with Elite XC about his plans to take his gold back sooner rather than later.

That’s a rematch everybody would love to see.Hopefully the guys over at “The Hot List” get to the bottom of when we’re going to see the feared striker back in action.

Tune in this afternoon to find out.

Cung Le, MMA News, Strikeforce