How good was Cung Le?

Fair or not whenever I hear the name Cung Le the first thing that comes to mind is Scotty Smith dusting him off after getting his ass whooped for 3+ rounds (even though he handled Scotty easily in the rematch)

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That and him receiving two of the more brutal facial rearranging I've witnessed in the UFC courtesy of Wand and DJ Mikey B

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That Franklin KO was pretty fucking savage though
 
I've been a supporter of Cung Le since he got in to MMA. I think overall his MMA career was successful.

He went 9-3 and beat two former UFC champions. Personally I think Cung Le in his prime with more MMA experience could give any current UFC Middleweight a tough fight and possibly be champion.

These are the obstacles Cung Le faced which I feel contributed to his losses:

1. Getting in to MMA at a late age.

2. Taking layoffs to act in movies.

3. Fighting way past his prime.

If Cung Le had committed himself to MMA at an earlier age and not tried to juggle an acting career I think he would have been much more successful. We never saw Cung Le do MMA in his 20s. He spent about 8 years in San Shou and other Martial Arts tournaments (never did traditional Kickboxing, most San Shou and Shidokan). He also had an extensive amateur San Shou career which included earning 3 Bronze medals at the World Championships. Cung Le tore through his competition. If you see him in his 20s he was in incredible shape.

He started MMA at age 33 so he was basically at his peak when he began the sport. Cung Le got off to a great start going undefeated at 5-0 with 5 KOs absolutely destroying everybody and then he fought Frank Shamrock for the title in only his 6th MMA fight. Cung Le was dominating that fight too until he got rocked in the 3rd Round and won the fight in the last few seconds by breaking Shamrock's arm.

Then he slipped up by taking layoffs for the movies. He vacated his belt because he was doing the movies and couldn't defend it when they asked. Then Scott Coker asked Cung Le to headline a card on short notice. Cung Le was not in fight shape when he fought Scott Smith and he was rusty. He still dominated the fight until he got caught. Then he had the rematch and destroyed him. He went back to the movies and eventually signed with the UFC with Wanderlei Silva as his first opponent. Cung Le won the first Round but he started to slow down. He couldn't keep up with Silva's pace. Silva's backpedaling also confused him and he got KO'd brutally in the 2nd Round. He beat Patrick Cote by decision. He knocked Rich Franklin out cold and then he had a tough fight with Michael Bisping where he was pretty much beaten to a bloody pulp and KO'd in the 4th Round.

Cung Le was 42 by the time he fought Bisping, way past his athletic prime. His flashy style is ideal for a young man. I don't think he had the stamina to keep up with Bisping. One thing we didn't get to see from Cung Le is how he would do against a skilled grappler. Cung Le has great wrestling so he is hard to takedown and keep down but his submission grappling skills weren't at a high level. You could even tell that his ground and pound wasn't very good in MMA. He wasn't a great ground fighter. I think he had most throws, sweeps and takedown defense that he developed from San Shou and Wrestling. He did submit someone in Shidokan which I have seen highlights of. If Cung Le in his prime fought Chris Weidman or Luke Rockhold that would be interesting. I think he could even have given Anderson Silva a good fight in his prime.
 
Very aesthetically pleasing fighting style. Good, but not great. His Frank Shamrock bout is a good one to watch.
 
Scott Smith finished Cung in his "prime"...

He came in fat in that fight and gassed. He dominated that fight up until that point & he dominated that fight in the rematch.
 
He was pretty good, definately fun to watch, but he was also pretty old when he started doing MMA.
 
He was pretty good, definately fun to watch, but he was also pretty old when he started doing MMA.

True but he did have experience as a kickboxer and San Shou fighter. That has to mean something since it allowed him to be great in one aspect of MMA.
 
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