Cung Le Breaks Frank Shamrock’s Arm to Win Strikeforce Middleweight Title
San
Jose Ca. By:
Jeff Townsend,
BASD Boxing and MMA Writer The crowd seemed to be a little more in favor of Cung Le but both fighters received a boisterous welcome upon entering the ring. The drama was high and the vibe was electric. Shamrock entered the ring in a Sharks jersey along with many signs that said “Spank Cung”. The first round saw Le throwing a good number of kicks, creating distance between him and Shamrock. This made it difficult for Shamrock to work on the inside and land punches. Both fighters were a little tentative and it seemed like Shamrock was looking to counter off Le’s kicks.
Both fighters turned it up in the third round. Shamrock rocked Le with some hard right hands that caused Le to bleed from the mouth. Le acknowledged at the post-fight presser that he “saw stars” after some of those shots in the third round. Le continued with his barrage of kicks from every angle and type – sweeps, roundhouse kicks, side kicks and spinning kicks. At the very end of the third round, Le landed a strong kick to the side of Shamrock’s head and then followed that up with another powerful kick. Shamrock blocked this kick with his right arm and the bell rang. Shamrock slowly walked back to his corner but went down to one knee before he could get there. That last kick broke Shamrock’s right arm and the extreme pain forced the fight to be stopped. It was clear to Le that the last kick had done some real damage. “I heard the bone snap after the kick” said Le. Shamrock acknowledged that he could hear the bone clicking so it was clear that real damage had been done. Le explained at the post-fight presser that he noticed that Shamrock was blocking the kicks with only one hand. “I teach my students to always block kicks with both hands” said Le. Blocking kicks with both hands lessens the impact and decreases the possibility of damage being done to the arm. Despite both being 35 years old, each fighter has taken a very different route coming into Saturday night’s superfight. Shamrock began his career in MMA back in the mid- 1990s when the sport was very new. Having accomplished a great deal in several years, Shamrock took time off from cage fighting in 1999 and focused on acting. His comeback began in earnest in 2006, rededicating himself to being a fighter. On the other hand, Cung Le has dominated the world of San Shou Kickboxing, becoming World Kickboxing champion with a 16-0 record. Le had only fought limited opposition in his previous five MMA fights before this match-up with Shamrock, making this win even more surprising.
Gilbert Melendez Retains His Strikeforce Lightweight Title In a fight scheduled for five rounds, Gilbert ‘El Nino’ Melendez (16-1) of San Francisco, CA needed just two rounds to successfully defend his Strikeforce Lightweight (155) title against Gabe Lemley (11-7) of New London, Iowa. Melendez came out and quickly scored a takedown of Lemley within the opening minute of the first round. Melendez was able to control the action by being on top of Lemley and peppering him with shots to the head throughout the round. Lemley was probably saved by the bell at the end of the round since Melendez was landing a pretty good volume of punches at that point via his ground-and-pound approach. The second round began with another takedown by Melendez and Lemley on his back, trying to defend against punches to his face. When it became clear that Melendez had inflicted a fair amount of punishment on Lemley and that he really had no chance to escape, the referee stopped the fight. Officially, Melendez was awarded a TKO win at 2:18 of the second round due to strikes. This was a comeback fight for Melendez since he suffered his first loss in his career in his last fight which took place just three months ago. He also suffered a broken right hand in that fight which made it even more surprising that Melendez was originally set to face Josh ‘The Punk’ Thompson in what would have been a very exciting and competitive bout. Since that fight fell threw, Lemley was added as a late replacement. Even Lemley knew that he was in for a very tough fight, stating in a pre-fight interview “I am a huge underdog”. Undercard Fights:
Drew ‘The Master’ Fickett (32-5) overcame his disappointment over his original opponent (Jake Shields) dropping out at the last minute to score a submission win via a guillotine choke over ‘The Korean Icepick’, Jae Suk Lim (9-4), at 1:14 of the first round. Lim attempted to escape from the guillotine chock by picking up Fickett and bodyslamming him on his back. Fickett held on and Lim was forced to tap out. Shields injured his back in training camp and had to withdraw from the fight which Fickett acknowledged was very discouraging. According to Fickett, this was the reason why he came in at 175 pounds, five pounds over the contracted weight of 170. Fickett vs. Shields will take place on a Showtime-televised June 14 fight card, providing the fighters are able to remain injury-free. In a heavyweight bout, Wayne Cole (11-6) was able to submit American Kickboxing Academy’s Mike Kyle (9-6-1) at :42 of the first round due to an arm bar. After taking the fight to the ground, Cole attempted a sloppy arm bar that worked due to his strength and quickness. Kyle was quick to tap out once the arm bar was in place. Surprisingly, Kyle took this fight on only three days notice despite not having fought for two years. In an interesting side note, Cole mentioned that he has been training in a makeshift gym that he created in his two car garage in Oklahoma and that his mother was not aware that he is a MMA fighter. Well, the secret is out after tonight’s televised event. In the first televised fight on the Showtime broadcast, middleweight Smokin’ Joey Villasenor (25-6) scored a first round knockout over Team Quest’s Ryan Jensen (11-4). The fighters were standing and trading shots until Villasenor landed a double jab followed by a brutal right hand near the end of the first round. It was a textbook boxing move and Jensen was very hurt, prompting the referee to jump in and stop the fight. Side Notes: WWE wrestler Bill Goldberg conducted post-fight interviews with the winners of each bout in the middle of the cage……Goldberg interviewed Kimbo Slice (2-0) about his upcoming appearance on a CBS-broadcast MMA fight card set for May 31, the first time a MMA fight will be on broadcast television……The HP Pavilion was at near capacity with over 16,000 fans in attendance……Revenue generated from ticket sales exceeded $1 million……All five televised fights ended due to stoppages (KO, TKO or by submission).
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Email Jeff with questions or comments at jtownsend@bayareasportsdrive.com
