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Talk Radio: On a 1-10 scale, how interested are you in the Cung Le/Scott Smith rematch?
By Zach Arnold | June 8, 2010
From Sherdog radio on Monday, a caller states that he thinks the re-match coming up on June 26th at San Jose Arena (HP Pavilion) for Strikeforce will take away from Scott Smith’s performance in the first bout last Winter. The radio host responds this way:
“About the Cung Le/Scott Smith re-match and Tim was saying, well the re-match really doesn’t make a whole heck of a lot of sense because it kind of takes away from the win Scott Smith had the first time around, kind of takes away from just how big of a comeback that actually was and just wondered what our thoughts were about what that meant for the first bout, if it meant any thing at all and… my first reaction was it doesn’t really mean a whole heck of a lot. I think you would see this re-match regardless of what organization it was, whether it was UFC, whether it was Strikeforce or whatever because Cung Le was winning that fight, because Scott Smith did have that huge comeback there at the end. I think what makes the re-match all the more intriguing is because you see whether or not this fight goes in Cung Le’s favor or whether or not Scott Smith does come back and win a second fight as well. I think Strikeforce right now, the one consistent that you’re seeing with their matchmaking if there is anything consistent at all is that they’re going to go and they’re going to take storylines like this when they’re out there for them and this one is pretty easy and like I said, regardless of the organization, this isn’t really on Strikeforce. If it were the UFC, if it were Bellator, if it were for whomever, they’d do this re-match relatively quickly because it’s there to be had and simply because the story from the first fight. Scott Smith came out of nowhere, won that fight against Cung Le, and I don’t think it takes away from that first fight. I think Scott Smith still has that comeback regardless of what happens in this second fight and I mean I don’t really, I can’t really get on board with this idea that it takes away from the first fight comeback just because of what happens here.”
This is a tough one. There’s a few angles to look at this fight from.
On a business level, this is a fight that was booked to try to get enough local fans to come to the building to watch the show. Cung Le is a San Jose guy. The question is whether or not the fans that used to support him so rabidly will show up now that he has a loss on his record. Plus, this is an indication that they need to find a way to attract fans locally now that the perception of Strikeforce has gone from being “the San Jose promotion” to “a national promotion.” Curiously enough, on all the television advertising for the show so far in the Bay Area, the ads blare Strikeforce and M-1 Global names with “Fedor vs. Werdum plus Cris Cyborg.” No mention is made of the Cung Le/Scott Smith re-match and Cyborg’s opponent, Jan Finney, isn’t being mentioned at all.
On a booking level, it sounds like a fight that’s easy to book on paper. However, there’s a few quirks to be looked at. With Jake Shields all but likely gone from Strikeforce, the promotion will have to hold a tournament to crown a champion. If Le wins the rematch here, does he end up in the tournament? (Probably not.) If Smith wins the rematch, it would give him some momentum heading into the proposed tournament. It may be a situation where the promotion has made the calculation that a tournament will happen and the result of this fight will not impact anything regarding where the key players stand for the tournament.
From Scott Smith’s perspective, he had to take the fight. He can’t stay on the sidelines and not fight because of Strikeforce’s track record. So, he couldn’t financially afford to cherry-pick what opponent he wanted next. From Cung Le’s perspective, it’s a pay day against an opponent that he has some history with and can perhaps rejuvenate his career by getting a win here in the re-match.
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I don’t like fights like this. Strikeforce is essentially saying ‘the wrong guy won’. It’s not as if there was a controversial ending – Le got tired and Smith clipped him.
I would disagree that other organizations would do this. Will UFC make Duffee/Russow 2 for their next fights? Because that would be the equivalent.
I dunno. I’ll watch it. The first one was stunningly entertaining given that it was made to be a squash and its on the undercard of something I’ll watch.
About a 3. I’d rather seem them both fight other people. If Cung Le were serious about MMA he’d go to 170lbs.
I’d like to see Le fight Nick Diaz.
Their 1st fight hurt Cung Le’s career. Le winning the rematch will not repair that. Because that’s exactly what this matchmaking is. They are hoping to show it was a fluke and to get Le back. This isn’t a GSP/Serra sort of thing…. Which by the way GSP beat Koscheck and Hughes before getting back to Serra….
Le looked horrible in that fight. Has no ground game. His punching power is not there. And he has suspect gas. Smith is literally a UFC reject who has little upside except that he can take a punch and keep coming back.
I’d give it a 2? But I’ll watch.
I’d watch Ken Shamrock fight Tank Abbott if it were on TV.
I was excited when they announced this fight. It’s just a good storyline. Can Smith do it again, even though Cung Le seems to have him outmatched?
Conversely, a fight like Duffee vs Russow 2 doesn’t really make sense. Duffee isn’t supposed to be one of the top stars in the promotion, whereas Cung Le is. Duffee/Russow was just a random undercard fight, and rematches of random undercard fights are generally pointless.
I can’t say I’d rather see either Cung Le or Scott Smith face anyone else instead.
Let’s be fair, here. Cung Le is not supposed to be one of the top stars in the sport. I mean he’s marketed that way by SF. But nobody buys it, do they?
By this point I thought everyone realized that there’s nothing on the strikes Le throws and all the decent fighters at 185 will walk through them.
I didn’t buy the Cung Le hype 10 years ago when he was fighting San Shou ‘fights’ against guys who’d never fought in San Shou before.
All I want to see out of his MMA career is him try his flying scissor lock and get a hammer fist through his face.
Yeah, he’s not a top 10 fighter, but he was Strikeforce’s Middleweight champ. So he’s a top guy in the promotion and one of their stars.
Fair enough.
Being a K-1 fan, I don’t see anything wrong with making this rematch. It was fun the first time around, right? I don’t know how you step it up for Smith when he is stuck below Lawler in the MW division and Mayhem is “suspended”, and I don’t care to see Cung Le in a tune-up against lesser competition. This rematch makes sense.
I don’t understand what being a (specifically) K-1 fan has to do with this. Care to explain?
And out of a ten if I want to see this? A solid 5. The first fight was a lot of fun, but it was no classic, no controversial ending (as Jeff said, Cung Le got tired and Smith took advantage and beat the crap out of Le. The end), there was no title on the line, etc. I will watch it, because 1.) I love combat sports regardless, 2.) it’s on free TV, and 3.) It’s on the undercard of a card I am going to watch regardless.
One of two things will happen. either Cung Le learned from his mistakes and will actually finish Smith off. Or the EXACT same thing will happen, where Cung Le was dominate with his flashy side kicks from bell-to-bell, get winded, and then get knocked out in the third. i think the later is more likely to happen than the former.
All I meant is that if you watch K-1, you’re used to seeing frequent rematches because the best fighters tend to stick around at the top level for a long time.
K-1 only has a heavier percentage of rematches because of the constant tournaments. There are super fight rematches too, but mostly because of all the tournaments K-1 does is why there are more rematches in K-1 than other promotions. And I’m sure if Bellator is able to stick around for a couple of years then we will probably see a high percentage of rematches there too. Hell, Bellator is one step away from a Toby Imada/Eddie Alvarez rematch if Imada can get past Pat Curran. And there was already a Ben Askren/Ryan Thomas rematch. But I do see what you mean though. And yes, I am a K-1 fan too.
One off K-1 rematches have been common outside tournaments forever and a day. The reason they happen so often is guys fight 7-8 times a year in kickboxing. Sometimes more.
This is typical Strikeforce shit-for-brains matchmaking. You have 2 potential stars here, and instead you put them together because of some imaginary universe where there are these strange imaginary people called “Strikeforce fans” who were so enthralled by the first fight and just have to know who the definitive victor is between these two.
Cung Le needs to be showcased knocking somebody out in his unique style. Vietnamese communities nationwide need to be told all about how badass this guy is. Instead you put him in against a guy who can’t be knocked out, and who is a one-punch threat to ruin his career. Brilliant!
And Scott Smith is, if nothing else, a guaranteed war any time he goes out to fight. PUT HIM IN AGAINST A BRAWLER YOU IDIOTS!!! WHY ARE YOU WASTING HIM AGAINST A METHODICAL OUTSIDE STRIKER???
I’d say my interest is about a five.
I don’t hate the idea, and I don’t love it. I basically have no feelings on it, which puts it dead in the middle of the scale.
That said, I hope Smith wins again. I would love to see Scott fight the smart fight and put Cung somewhere he is not comfortable (on the mat or up against the fence), but I would settle for a repeat of the last fight.
Le is basically Kimbo Slice with a cool martial arts background rather than a street fighting background. Le only has one tool at his disposal (kicking game) and he’s not exactly a great finisher even with that one tool. His hands are below average, his clinch striking is weak, and his ground game is nonexistent. His reputation was built on squash matches and beating up a completely shot Frank Shamrock.
Also, if Strikeforce wants to give us rematches of the improbable last second KOs of Scott Smith’s career, I want to see the Radach & Sell rematches more than the Le rematch.
I think the reason that they had to rush forward with this fight probably has something to do with Cung Le being 38 and in danger of breaking a hip if he fought somebody that could take him down.