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

[ocfightfan]

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.

 

[spinitch]

Cung Le > Sage by quite a bit. Solid fighter.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

One of the true legends of the sport !

Put errspeck on his name!!

 

[Preston broadus]

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.

 

[Megatronlee]

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

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.

 

[krelianx]

Cung was a great striker and did very well in kickboxing. In MMA, meh.

 

[SOFA KING AWSM]

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.

 

[robbie]

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.

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.

 

[Patrick Jane]

I liked him. He beat Frank Shamrock so he was obviously good.

 

[blunttruth]

i think his striking style is sick. side kick to the body was fuckin devastating, feel like that's an underutilized weapon

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.

 

[benebox]

He was looked at like MVP as others have said. Really good striker but unlikely to ever be champion.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

I liked him. He beat Frank Shamrock so he was obviously good.

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)

 

[Patrick Jane]

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)

Frank Shamrock was a top fighter throughout his entire carreer though, so a win against him at any point is a big deal.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Solid fighter who had the misfortune to fight in the Anderson Silva's MW reign

 

[snaportap21]

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

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.