Strikeforce’s Cung Le is No Anderson Silva

As I sat and watched Strikeforce: Evolution this morning (I DVRed the event to watch WEC live) thoughts of Cung Le (6-1) as an elite mixed martial artist crept into my head. The MMA world was ablaze with discussions on how Cung Le was on the same level as Fighters.com and UFC middleweight champion “Spider” Anderson Silva (21-4) in the striking department. I have never been one to view Cung as an elite MMA fighter and after last night the world could see why he is no where near the level of Silva or Fighters.com top-ranked “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (30-1).

“Hands of Steel” Scott Smith (16-6) took down Cung Le in the final round, winning by knock out. Is this the reason Cung is not an elite level mixed martial artist? No it is not. Today we see many of the top fighters lose fights they are supposed to win. Make no bones about it, Cung was supposed to win this fight. The sport uses four ounce gloves and with the striking prowess of many of the fighters, all it takes is one clear shot to end a night.

What I have seen in the past from Cung was his amazing ability to kick from angles that we usually do not see in the sport. His kicks do not make him an elite striker though. A top level striker may be a guy who uses very little kicks but seldom do you see a guy who uses few punches considered one of the best strikers. Cung’s lack of clean punches has always stood out to me. Last night was just another example of that. He seemed to be looking to hurt Scott with kicks. This is was a good strategy as he was winning the fight but a true elite striker would be able to mix punches with those kicks. He is obviously more comfortable kicking than punching and this is a glaring weakness in his game. Anderson Silva uses kicks similar to Cung Le yet he uses them to set up strong punches. This is what an elite striker does to get victories.

Cung Le rocked Scott a couple times in the fight and ended up going to the ground with him. Scott Smith is not a guy known for his ground game. He had trouble getting back to guard yet Cung was unable to do much. One thing that stood out last night was when Cung was in Scott Smith’s guard and Smith was controlling his wrists. I would expect this control from a guy like Fedor but Scott, who is known as a power striker, should not have been able to control Le that easily. Anderson Silva would have been able to capitalize on such an opportunity. I never saw Cung try to pass once in the guard. He looked lost on the mat. This coupled with his awful take down attempts is another weakness in a man many said was at the top of the game.

Frank Shamrock (23-10-2) mentioned last night that in his fight with Cung he wanted to take him to the later rounds because he thought he gassed there. I noticed that in Cung’s fight with Sam Morgan (19-11) Cung looked to be tired going into the third round. Last night he was breathing out of his mouth after the first. If this was the first time I had seen him do that I would have considered it ring rust due to his long lay off pursuing a movie career. The problem is it was not the first time. Could this be attributed to the large number of kicks he throws in a fight? Cung might have better cardio if he combined his kicks and punches better so that he does not have to throw so mnay kicks. None the less, he was gassed and lack of cardio is not something we expect to see in an elite fighter.

Lack of proper cardio, focusing on kicks and not mixing in punches and his lack of a ground game all lead me to what I had always assumed. Cung Le is a one dimensional fighter that pleases the crowd with his unorthodoxed kicks but is far from an elite fighter the likes of Anderson Silva and Fedor. It is time to put that talk to rest and just enjoy watching him fight knowing he is an elite martial artist but not a mixed martial artist.
[Fighters.com]