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Thursday, Sep 06, 2012

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” Cung Le Goes to China; Jon Jones Continues to Put His Foot in His Mouth

Cung Le (right)

By Joshua Molina

Cung Le is a fighter, but he’s first and foremost a family man. That’s one of the main reasons why the Vietnamese-American fight so often in San Jose, California, where he lives.

Nine out of the fighter’s 10 professional bouts have taken place in San Jose. All 17 of Le’s kickboxing fights took place in the United States, with six in San Jose, another six in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and the rest in Chicago, Hawaii and Florida.

He likes the home field advantage.

So it will be intriguing to see how he performs in China, as part of the UFC’s first show in that country. Le will headline the event, battling Rich Franklin, in what should be an outstanding fight between the two combat veterans. According to fcfighter.com, the fight will take place on Nov. 10 at the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel’s Cotai Arena and will be broadcast on FUEL TV.

Le, who is also a Hollywood actor, is one of the sport’s most exciting fighters. His dazzling kicks from any and all angles, and vicious spinning backfists have made him one of the most feared strikes in the business. At 40, however, his time to strike for a UFC championship is now and the only way he gets there is through Franklin.

From a promotional standpoint, the UFC needs to stop holding big UFC cards a week before big Strikeforce cards. The company did it in July and will do it again this month.

A week after Chael Sonnen battled Anderson Silva on July 7, Luke Rockhold wiped out Tim Kennedy at a Strikeforce show on July 14. There’s only so much any company, even the UFC, can do to promote two big cards that close to one another.

The Strikeforce show was stacked with great fights, yet, not a lot of people knew about it, and even the fighters complained about a lack of promotion for the event.
Now, a week after Jon Jones defends his light heavyweight championship against Vitor Belfort, Strikeforce will be live on Showtime with an event headlined by lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez battling Pat Healy.

The other big fight on that card will be Josh Thomson vs. Caros Fodor, in a fight that hopefully Fodor wins, for no other reason than not wanting to see a fourth wrestling match between Thomson and Melendez.

Strikeforce had a strong and growing brand before the UFC purchased it. It’s too bad that their shows feel like afterthoughts to the big UFC shows.

Jon Jones continues entertain the world by accident. Jones hasn’t said much about Vitor Belfort, but he has plenty to say about the canceled UFC 151 card. After Dan Henderson pulled out of the fight because of an injury, Jones refused to fight Chael Sonnen. UFC president Dana White then canceled the card, attacking Jones and questioning his manhood for refusing to fight.

Jones, however, isn’t helping matters, by constantly backpedaling in his apologies and his snooty attitude over anyone suggesting that the champ should have just stepped into the cage and fought.

He told the Associated Press this yesterday.

“I had to do what’s right for myself by turning down that fight, Dana had to do what was right for himself by putting the blame on everyone else except for himself,” Jones told the Associated Press. “The lesson to be learned is, at the end of the day, you have to protect yourself and your family.”

That’s a funny statement from Jones, considering that Jones was arrested and convicted for drunken driving earlier this year.

Contact reporter Joshua Molina at jmolina@fcfighter.com. Or follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JoshuaMolinaMMA

posted by JoshuaM @ 3:20 pm
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