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Thoughts on Cung Le vs Scott Smith?


ProphetX

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Le/Smith was quite fishy to me (maybe I just need to rewatch the first round, but both "knockdowns" seemed....shady at best), but I loved the ending regardless.

 

Thomson/Melendez was great again, but I wouldn't say Fight of the Year. Got fairly predictable and such from R3 on.

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Le/Smith was quite fishy to me (maybe I just need to rewatch the first round, but both "knockdowns" seemed....shady at best), but I loved the ending regardless.

 

 

Why shady?

 

If I remember right, the second one look like it knocked him on his butt rather than actually hurting him...first one was a pretty decent body shot though.

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Just watched the main card fights and looked good overall. Wish the Overeem situation would be over so Fedor could just fight him and lead them as champion, wonder who Coker has lined up for Overeem since he said he was going to try to get him to fight in April as well and who else could he face besides the winner of Fedor/Werdum? Any HW they bring in wouldn't have fought in Strikeforce yet (asides from Mo) they have Lashley or I guess if Barnett gets his suspension changed you could hope he wins then push Barnett Fedor
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Le/Smith was quite fishy to me (maybe I just need to rewatch the first round, but both "knockdowns" seemed....shady at best), but I loved the ending regardless.

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me and the people i watched with were thinking the same thing. he was even falling back before the second kick landed. it was very odd.

 

But with that said.......Poor Le!!! his nose was mush after the ending sequence!!!! cant be good for the movie career:p

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Just watched the main card fights and looked good overall. Wish the Overeem situation would be over so Fedor could just fight him and lead them as champion, wonder who Coker has lined up for Overeem since he said he was going to try to get him to fight in April as well and who else could he face besides the winner of Fedor/Overeem? Any HW they bring in wouldn't have fought in Strikeforce yet (asides from Mo) they have Lashley or I guess if Barnett gets his suspension changed you could hope he wins then push Barnett Fedor

 

Coker has said that he expects Fedor-Werdum on the CBS card next spring, and Melendez-Aoki, Henderson-Shields.

 

As for new Heavyweight signings, Mo is actually a LHW so whether he's going to stay at HW is questionable, though he's a great fighter, I don't think he can afford to give up 50ibs to fighters with slightly more talent than Whitehead. I'd like to see Mo-Feijao, personally. And Overeem appears to have no plans to return to the US- he's a household name in Japan, and is payed well to fight K-1 and with DREAM, I don't think he has much to gain coming back over to fight Fedor, since I expect the cuddly Russian to destroy him. I can see Strikeforce stripping Overeem of his belt if he dosen't fight by the summer.

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Coker has said that he expects Fedor-Werdum on the CBS card next spring, and Melendez-Aoki, Henderson-Shields.

 

Fedor Werdum is a safe bet until they figure out what they are going to do with the Overeem situation. Problem is, if they strip Overeem after the Fedor-Werdum fight, who does Emelianenko face for the belt? Lashley? I really don't see the point of having belts when there are only 3-4 guys in the division.

 

They only have Fedor on a 12 month deal as well...if wouldn't be too big a stretch to see him either leave or be M.I.A. for some time, taking a couple of fights in Japan (Iishi, Overeem, Barnett) while negotiations with SF and the UFC take place.

 

As for new Heavyweight signings, Mo is actually a LHW so whether he's going to stay at HW is questionable, though he's a great fighter, I don't think he can afford to give up 50ibs to fighters with slightly more talent than Whitehead. I'd like to see Mo-Feijao, personally.

 

Apparently the situation with Whitehead was that he was the only 205 guy who'd been on TV recently that they felt wouldn't pose a massive threat to Mo. Nobody thought to ask Whitehead if he'd gained 60lbs in the past 6 months, so the bout ended up being at heavyweight :D

 

Mo is a *really* small guy - next to guys like Rich Franklin he looked significantly smaller, so like you say, I can't imagine he'd be at HW for long. Agree that Feijao would be a good yardstick fight for him at this point.

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Cung Le has looked good in his fights, but i agree with what people have said here, interesting to put his cardio to the test and up against a serious wrestler or BJJ fighter, doubt he will be able to do what he does if he fights Hendo

 

I really don't hold out any hopes for Le against even a moderatly-skilled ground fighter.

 

Mayhem, Shields, Jacare, Henderson (who would probably mow him down on the feet as well), Lawal (a natural 185'er) would just walk through a couple of those flashy kicks and ragdoll him. He looked clueless in terms of striking and grappling when he had Smith down and hurt.

 

Lawler could make for a decent scrap, but the gameplan for Le has been confirmed now - just wait him out and blast away.

 

If they are going to make the most of him and put him straight back in with a 'name' fighter, then the only one that comes to mind is Lindland, purely because he hasn't looked that dangerous recently. Le might be able to stay away from him and pick him appart, but again, if it hits the ground all bets are off.

 

I see little point in 're-building' Cung with more cans - the guy is 37 and clearly more interested in movies than fighting at this point. He's supposedly making some decent scratch - my vote is to throw him to the wolves on CBS and hope his remaining 'mystique' with the casual fans gives someone like Jacare or Lawler a foot up into title contention.

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Fedor Werdum is a safe bet until they figure out what they are going to do with the Overeem situation. Problem is, if they strip Overeem after the Fedor-Werdum fight, who does Emelianenko face for the belt? Lashley? I really don't see the point of having belts when there are only 3-4 guys in the division.

 

They only have Fedor on a 12 month deal as well...if wouldn't be too big a stretch to see him either leave or be M.I.A. for some time, taking a couple of fights in Japan (Iishi, Overeem, Barnett) while negotiations with SF and the UFC take place.

 

 

 

Apparently the situation with Whitehead was that he was the only 205 guy who'd been on TV recently that they felt wouldn't pose a massive threat to Mo. Nobody thought to ask Whitehead if he'd gained 60lbs in the past 6 months, so the bout ended up being at heavyweight :D

 

Mo is a *really* small guy - next to guys like Rich Franklin he looked significantly smaller, so like you say, I can't imagine he'd be at HW for long. Agree that Feijao would be a good yardstick fight for him at this point.

 

Can't see what Fedor has to gain from fighting Barnett, didn't he already break him with PRIDE? Ishii and Overeem make more sense, especally Overeem who is quickly becoming one of the most well rounded heavyweights out there with very good striking and a solid ground game. He needs a competitive fight at HW in MMA, destroying James Thompson dosen't make you a great fighter. Even Kimbo Slice managed that.

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Can't see what Fedor has to gain from fighting Barnett, didn't he already break him with PRIDE? Ishii and Overeem make more sense, especally Overeem who is quickly becoming one of the most well rounded heavyweights out there with very good striking and a solid ground game. He needs a competitive fight at HW in MMA, destroying James Thompson dosen't make you a great fighter. Even Kimbo Slice managed that.

 

Nope, they never fought in Pride. Barnett beat his brother in a really good fight though. They were supposed to fight at Affliction 3, but Josh had his re-licencing 'issues' and well, we all know how that one turned out.

 

For me, it's still the biggest HW fight outside of the UFC - perhapse the biggest fight in any weight class in terms of the talent involved. I'm a big Overeem bandwagoner, trained at Golden Glory in Breda myself many a time back in the day and Alistair was always an awesome guy - I just don't see him being all that competetive against Fedor.

 

He's done poorly against G'n'P guys in the past and that's Fedor's bread and butter. And when you really look at it, who has Alistair beat...ever? Belfort? A past-his-best Vovchanchyn? His best win was Kharitonov in '06, when the Russian dislocated his shoulder (Overeem got knocked out in the rematch).

 

Fedor's last few opponants have had glarring holes in their game: I'm not saying that Barnett is better than Fedor in any one area, but he has the striking, wrestling, submissions and cardio to make a fight out of it.

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I blame my patchy memory, of course Fedor hasn't fought Barnett, I just vaguely remember there being a ton of hype for an Emelienako-Barnett bought. Wrong one, obviously.

 

Yeah, Overeem has the talent, and I think he's improved a lot since the PRIDE days; his K-1 training means he hits harder, he's brutishly strong and he has always had a ground game that, at the very least, can be classed as passably defensive. But this is Fedor. He is a beast. I like Overeem, but I don't think he's got it in him to beat Fedor.

 

I don't think DREAM can afford to co-promote with M-1, so we'll have to wait until Barnett's suspension runs out and he returns to the States. I'm sure Strikeforce will be more than happy to match those two up.

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I don't think DREAM can afford to co-promote with M-1, so we'll have to wait until Barnett's suspension runs out and he returns to the States. I'm sure Strikeforce will be more than happy to match those two up.

 

Funny thing is he isn't actually suspended. He didn't fail a drugs test, he was applying for re-licence in Cali.

 

If he has a valid licence somewhere he could compete with few problems - because he didn't fail on an active licence, there's little another SAC could do other then to test him before he fights.

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He isn't? You sure? I'm certain he's suspended with a hearing with CSAC coming up in the New Year. Maybe I just misread the article.

 

Well, if he isn't then as long as Coker's willing to pay him he can bring him back, the January 30th SF card's being held in Florida so it shouldn't be hard to have him fight Fedor away from Cali.

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He isn't? You sure? I'm certain he's suspended with a hearing with CSAC coming up in the New Year. Maybe I just misread the article.

 

Well, if he isn't then as long as Coker's willing to pay him he can bring him back, the January 30th SF card's being held in Florida so it shouldn't be hard to have him fight Fedor away from Cali.

 

Posotive - it's very complicated though. He doesn't have a licence, so there is nothing to suspend. Whether or not Cali, or any other commission would grant or even look at an application for one before the appeal is heard is a different matter. It's very unlikely that they would - commissions are not interconected, but they tend to abide by each other's rulings etc and back each other's decisions.

 

IF, and thats a HUGE if, Barnett wanted to fight in say, Alabama (an unregulated state), then he could do so tomorrow. However, commissions see things like that as an act of defience and don't take at all kindly to it. You're basically using loopholes to avoid thier authority. If Strikeforce were to promote the show, they'd be in the bad books too.

 

This is the third dirty test for Barnett, so he want's to stay as clean as a whistle especially as it's unlikely the appeal will go well for him. He could well face a situation where SAC's refuse future licence applications as he is a repeat offender.

 

So while it could happen, it wont :-p

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Shame, it would have been a good fight. The Strikeforce HW division is pretty strong as it is, though, I'm looking forward to see how Lashley will do against some good opposition - Antonio Silva would be a good start IMO, and obviously there's Rogers, Overeem, Werdum and Walker (can't beleive I just typed that) who could all match up with Fedor at some point. I wouldn't be opposed to Rogers-Fedor II, since the last one was entertaining enough, and reasonably competitive.
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