I’ve been waiting a long time to see Cung Le enter the UFC cage. He brings a very flashy, unique and effective style to the cage. With his respectful attitude, he really embodies the spirit of a martial artist. There is an undercurrent of some fans and upcoming fighters that have an over the top aggressive and macho attitude towards the sport, so it’s nice to see some of the traditional martial arts culture seep into the game with fighter like Cung Le and Lyoto Machida. 2-6 in his last 8 outings and been knocked out 4 times in those fights.

Wanderlei Silva comes to fight every time but the problem is his chin isn’t as strong as it once was. He was an untouchable force in Pride, but just like Chuck Liddell, his ability to take a punch has decreased over time. Liddell also had a similar hyper-aggressive attack that allowed him to take a few shots to get in there and work his own strikes to knock out his opponent. Liddell and Silva’s style is both fun to watch but in the latter stages of their career its effectiveness has been reduced. Silva is 2-6 in his last 8 outings and 4 of those losses have been via KO. We’ll see how this fight goes, but with the slipping of Silva over the past few years Cung Le should come in as a fave in this bout.

Cung Le reflects on the first loss in his career to Scott Smith and talks his preparation for the rematch on June 26th