Archive for the ‘Cung Le’ Category

Jake Shields: Cung Le would rather vacate the title than have to fight me for it

Saturday, November 7th, 2009

“Cung Le doesn’t want to fight me. That’s why he vacated the title only to  come back a month later and fight again. You’ll have to ask Cung why he won’t fight me.”

Newly crowned Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Jake Shields takes at shot at Cung Le during the “Fedor vs. Rogers” post fight press conference on Nov. 7 from the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Shields bested Jason “Mayhem” Miller in a five round unanimous decision victory to lay claim to the belt that Le vacated just last month. Le contends that he was not expecting to be available to to fight so soon, but his current acting gig was delayed when the movie he was filiming got pushed back a year, thus freeing him up for a return to Strikeforce against Scott Smith on Dec. 19. Is Le avoiding the ground game of Shields? Or is this just a case of inconvenient timing? Thoughts?

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Cung Le: Vacating the Strikeforce middleweight title ‘is the right thing to do’

Monday, September 21st, 2009

Props: MMAWeekly

Quoteworthy:

“For me, potentially I have another project, and I know I’m not in fight shape right now, and I think I should vacate my title because it’s not fair to them who their livelihood is fighting for an interim title when I’m here running around making movies and doing something different. It does not mean that I’m retiring; I’m just doing it because I think it’s the right thing to do … because I’m not ready to step up in the next coming months and fight five-rounders. I definitely intend to return, and I know for a fact that I will return, but I can’t just jump back in and be able to go five rounds at peak level when I left (after) the fight with Frank (Shamrock).”

Strikeforce middleweight champion Cung Le talks about his absence from the promotion after churning out an assortment of upcoming movie roles. 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 in progress it will be no sooner than 2010 before he returns. Fortunately Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker will create an interim title in his absence that Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Jake Shields are scheduled to fight for on Nov. 7 live on CBS. It’s already been well over a year since Le captured the belt from Frank Shamrock in his hometown of San Jose and definitely plans on returning — but will the then 37-year-old Le still have the chops to compete in the new-look Strikeforce?

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