Was Cung Le ever respected in these forums or was he viewed like Sage Northcutt?

I like to think that Cung was respected but it's never pure respect around here. He was a serious martial artist and good fighter. He also beat some real guys.

Sage on the other hand was 99% stage managed hype. He was a good athlete and good kid but most of his martial arts accomplishments were superficial nonsense. The moment he ran into a decent journeyman he lost. I don't blame him though. His father was a shady former bodybuilder who kept Sage under his thumb for his whole life.
 
One of the true legends of the sport !

Put errspeck on his name!!
 
He was really fun to watch but he was at the end of his career when he joined the ufc. He was really fun to watch in strike force as well. He had a war with wanderlei and was never the same.
 
Intermission said:
Cung Le is a fighter that is almost forgotten but one that I heard about in my TKD circles back in the day.

Was he ever truly respected in this sport ? He is never brought up in any mma discussions of past fighter, in any pod.

I have never heard Rogan mention him in modern times
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The Tma guys loved him.

I’m 35. I was a fan of his in highschool. I didn’t watch his pre strike force stuff though.
 
Cung was a great striker and did very well in kickboxing. In MMA, meh.
 
We fuckin love Cung. He was the first dude I seen that was using Sanda and he was ferocious back in the day and quick af. Crazy ass kicks and his throws were dope af.
 
laleggenda27 said:
Yes, he was respected. No, he wasn't like Sage. Cung was a legitimately great sanshou fighter; that's where I first saw him.

He was old by the time he transitioned full-time to mma, but he still had a very good mma career.
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Started very late in MMA and he cut very little weight and fought at 185. Thus he was the smaller and shorter fighter in every fight (only 5' 9"). Won the Strikeforce MW title, but was up and down in the UFC. Very entertaining fighter with exceptional skills. Would have been interesting to see him start much earlier and fight at 170 in the UFC where he would have been fighting opponents his own size.

I researched and found that Le typical weighed around 195 to 197 in the cage which was his weight when heading into fight camp. When between fights and not training hard, he weighed around 200-205 lbs and would start dieting to drop 5 - 10 lbs before going to fight camps.
 
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Pancake Sprawl said:
i think his striking style is sick. side kick to the body was fuckin devastating, feel like that's an underutilized weapon
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Exactly ! With those kicks you can get your whole body weight and momentum into your opponents body, and when leading with the heel and base of the foot there is minimal chance it could get checked, or end up hurting the kicker more tan the kickee.
 
He was looked at like MVP as others have said. Really good striker but unlikely to ever be champion.
 
Patrick Jane said:
I liked him. He beat Frank Shamrock so he was obviously good.
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Frank was nearly 10 years past his prime when he fought Cung Le. (I'm aware they are the same age, Frank had massive injuries and was at the end of his career)
 
Doctor Grudge said:
Frank was nearly 10 years past his prime when he fought Cung Le. (I'm aware they are the same age, Frank had massive injuries and was at the end of his career)
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Frank Shamrock was a top fighter throughout his entire carreer though, so a win against him at any point is a big deal.
 
Intermission said:
Cung Le is a fighter that is almost forgotten but one that I heard about in my TKD circles back in the day.

Was he ever truly respected in this sport ? He is never brought up in any mma discussions of past fighter, in any pod.

I have never heard Rogan mention him in modern times
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Definitely respected. The failed drug test hurt him a bit but he got into mma past his prime and did very well with his style. Even ko’d a former champ in Franklin.
 
I remember he was good, nobody thought he was the best, some people didn't think he was very good, but most people thought of him as solid MW. He was never praised as some godly fighter
 
Intermission said:
Cung Le is a fighter that is almost forgotten but one that I heard about in my TKD circles back in the day.

Was he ever truly respected in this sport ? He is never brought up in any mma discussions of past fighter, in any pod.

I have never heard Rogan mention him in modern times
Click to expand...
One of my old Coaches, long before he transitioned to MMA. Though Cung was always at Lions Den San Jose, AKA San Jose, Fight and Fitness San Francisco, Fairtex San Francisco, and Kings Boxing Oakland, training with MMA Fighters, during those early years before he went MMA "full time". In San Shou and Sanda, he was a on GOAT level with fans and other Combat Sport Athletes. Was always a local at Gladiator Challenge, Dragon House Cage Series, Strikeforce and Bellator events.
 
Strikeforce was legit, we used to talk about those guys a lot, Cung Le had a little bit of mystique about him and def brought some fun to the sport.
 
The best question would be if sherdoggers jerked off to Cung Le as much as they did with Sage

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