Filed under: UFC
Cung Le isn’t the only fighter to find out the hard way that acting and professional fighting don’t always mix, especially when done in the wrong order, but at least he used it as a learning experience, he said at Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference.
“I actually learned my lesson the first time when I came back against Scott Smith,” Le said. “I wasn’t very busy training when I was on the movie set. I was just more focused on getting into character.”
He started off well enough against Smith in their first meeting in December of 2009. But his lack of training caught up to him in the final round, and Smith came out of nowhere to score the upset via knockout of a fading, winded Le.
When they signed on to face each other in a rematch some seven months later, he had every opportunity to make the same mistake. Fortunately for Le, experience — particularly the painful kind – is an excellent teacher.
“I was doing some film work, [but] I made sure I trained every day and I stayed in shape,” he said, adding that this time around, as he prepares to face Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 in San Jose, Calif., he’s been in the gym since February.
“I am focused on this fight, so right now it’s all about being an MMA fighter,” said Le.
For Silva, who stepped in as a replacement for the injured Vitor Belfort, the stakes are even higher. UFC president Dana White has made it clear that he thinks Silva might need to hang up the gloves after his knockout loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132, and this could be the Brazilian’s last chance to prove to his boss that he still has some fight left in him.
“I love fighting. I love the sport. I grew up inside the ring, inside the Octagon. I want to fight as long as I can,” Silva told reporters.
When asked if he felt that his back was against the wall in the fight with Le, he didn’t argue. “Some guys fight better in that position. I’m thinking I am one of [those] guys,” he said.
Le, a decorated Sanshou kickboxer who turned to MMA relatively late in life and fought the entirety of his four-year career in Strikeforce up until this point, said he specifically sought out a deal with the UFC because he wanted to fight in the Octagon, and not simply because he wanted to be on this card in his adopted hometown of San Jose.
“It really means a lot,” he said. “I’ve fought on many platforms, different styles, but being a UFC fighter now, being the co-main event, definitely is a dream come true. Just earlier this morning I was looking at the picture where I was at the refugee camp, and now being in the co-main event of the UFC, it’s a dream come true. I’m very excited and I’m going to be ready to rock and roll and give the fans what they want to see.”