MMA Gospel

As I sat and watched Strikeforce: Evolution this morning (I DVRed the event to watch WEC live) thoughts of Cung Le as an elite mixed martial artist crept into my head. The mma world was ablaze with discussions on how Cung Le was on the same level as Fighters.com and UFC middleweight champion "Spider" Anderson Silva (21-4) in the striking department. I have never been one to view Cung as an elite mma fighter and after last night the world could see why he is no where near the level of Silva or Fighters.com top ranked "Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko (30-1).

"Hands of Steel" Scott Smith (16-6) took down Cung Le in the final round, winning by knock out. Is this the reason Cung is not an elite level mixed martial artist? No it is not. Today we see many of the top fighters lose fights they are supposed to win. Make no bones about it, Cung was supposed to win this fight. The sport uses four ounce gloves and with the striking prowess of many of the fighters, all it takes is one clear shot to end a night.

What I have seen in the past from Cung was his amazing ability to kick from angles that we usually do not see in the sport. His kicks do not make him an elite striker though. A top level striker may be a guy who uses very little kicks but seldom do you see a guy who uses few punches considered one of the best strikers. Cung's lack of clean punches has always stood out to me. Last night was just another example of that. He seemed to be looking to hurt Scott with kicks. This is was a good strategy as he was winning the fight but a true elite striker would be able to mix punches with those kicks. He is obviously more comfortable kicking than punching and this is a glaring weakness in his game. Anderson Silva uses kicks similar to Cung Le yet he uses them to set up strong punches. This is what an elite striker does to get victories.



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