Scott Smith (17-6)  stole the show in San Jose, scoring a stunning come-from-behind knockout of former Strikeforce middleweight champions Cung Le (6-1).  Smith was being dominated in all aspects of the fight before landing a short left hook that dropped Le to a knee.  Smith pounced to close out the fight, scoring the knockout at 3:25 of the third round.

The fight marked the comeback of Le, the previously undefeated MMA champ and world champion kickboxer.  Le had taken a 20 month hiatus from the sport since his highlight reel victory over MMA legend Frank Shamrock to win the championship.  Instead of defending his title, Le set out on a movie career with a successful release of his movie “Fighter” in April 2009 and the upcoming Tekken.  Strikeforce subsequently stripped Le of his belt due to inactivity.

Le’s defeat is stunning in of itself, but more shocking in that this was considered to be a tune up fight.  Smith, while a solid fighter, had no victories against substantial competition, losing all the major fights of his career.  Le’s resume included a 22-0 kickboxing record and a 17-0 record in Sanshoum, a form of Chinese Kung Fu.   Tonight’s defeat was the first in Le’s career in any fighting style.  It was a mismatch of grand proportion on paper, but that why they keep the cage locked until the final bell.

The defeat halt’s Le’s progression back to the top of the middleweight conversation at Strikeforce.  Le’s inactivity, coupled with his relative MMA inexeperience does not warrant contender status in the division.  While his Jackie Chan style of fighting is exciting to watch, total reliance on spinning back kicks and leg strikes leaves a fighter open to counter attacks.  And that’s exactly what happened this evening when a second-tier fighter such as Scott Smith knocked him out, leaving him bloodied at the nose and with multiple hematomas on his forehead.

Le still has tremendous upside, but it will take learning how to grapple and dedicating himself to the sport.

Tags: cung le, mixed martial arts, mma, scott smith, strikeforce

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 12:24 am and is filed under mma, strikeforce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.