On September 9 late at night, word came out that former UFC Heavyweight tournament winner and former Light Heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort (20-9-0) is being set to take on former Strikeforce Middleweight champion and martial arts master Cung Le (7-1-0) as part of UFC 139 in San Jose, California on November 19. This will be Belfort's second fight following his failed attempt to capture the Middleweight title from reigning champion Anderson Silva and will also be Le's promotional debut in the UFC after fighting his entire eight fight career in Strikeforce. Both are coming off rebound Rnd1 KO wins with Belfort quickly knocking out Japanese star Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 133: Evans vs Ortiz II and Le knocking out Scott Smith at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum avenging the only loss landing a spinning back-kick to the body that crippled Smith from sheer pain.With much of the top ranking UFC Middleweight division tied up in fights already and Strikeforce not expected to last past the first quarter of 2012, this match up is not too surprising. In fact, this match up has the potential to be a match up of conflicting styles. Belfort is a fast paced striker that explodes in powerful bursts to blitz his opponents rushing forward throwing punches with plenty of knockout power in each fist. Le is a well disciplined martial artist with a style that involves covering a a small distance quick with precision strikes that is proven by his record when you see all of his seven wins coming by way of (T)KO, which even includes winning the Strikeforce Middleweight title after breaking Frank Shamrock's arm and forced the fight to be stopped after the third round. With such conflicting styles and elite status, both fighters are known to be fan favorites in each promotion and this will be a well anticipated bout for Le's hometown crowd in San Jose where he trains out of the American Kickboxing Academy, and will continue his streak of fighting in his hometown for every fight in his MMA career.
While Le will not be an immediate draw to UFC fans oblivious to any other promotion, it may help to promote the match up as a UFC star vs Strikeforce star. The potential for a super fight between the two leading MMA promotions in the country has interested die hards for some time seeing the boom in popularity for Strikeforce after signing former PrideFC stars Fedor Emelianenko and Dan Henderson, and the dominant streaks of champions like Welterweight bad boy Nick Diaz and his Lightweight teammate Gilbert Melendez. While Le was one such star that attracted much attention with his disciplined background and fan friendly attitude, his long absences from competing to carry on his acting career have brought down his popularity to casual fans. Le learned his lesson coming back after a twenty-one month layoff vacating his Strikeforce Middleweight title for his movie career. Coming back twenty-one months since winning the Middleweight title to take on Scott Smith, Le's endurance and cardio were not properly prepared and was upset by Smith suffering his first professional loss with a Rnd3 KO. Making a comeback, Le met Smith in a rematch where he came in fully prepared and showcased his skills landing precise and powerful shots early in Rnd2 that ended with him landing a Spinning Back Kick to Smith's body that crippled him and added punches to finish. With this expected bout against Belfort, Le will be coming in on off a seventeen month long layoff, though he says he has stayed in shape in his time away from competition frequenting the gym and working on martial arts themed films. With Le at the age of 39, coming off a
No comments:
Post a Comment