Report: Le vs. Shamrock to happen on March 29
January 12, 2008 by Sam Caplan
A match between Strikeforce middleweight champion Frank Shamrock and Cung Le is set to take place on March 29 in San Jose at the HP Pavilion, according to Yahoo!’s Dave Meltzer.
The event is expected to be a co-promotion between Strikeforce and EliteXC and will air live on premium-cable provider Showtime.
According to Meltzer, the five-bout telecast will be comprised of two EliteXC matches, two Strikeforce matches, and a bout featuring a Strikeforce fighter vs. a fighter from EliteXC.
Neither Strikeforce or EliteXC has made an official announcement, but a joint press conference to announce the event is expected sometime within the next week.
While no other bouts have been announced from the card, a Strikeforce lightweight title match between champion Gilbert Melendez and challenger Josh Thomson is a possibility. Murilo “Ninja” Rua has also been quoted as saying that his next match for EliteXC would be in March. Meltzer writes that Jake Shields is also expected to be fighting on the show.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG
The thing i am most interested in seeing is the progression of Cung’s ground game or ability to avoid it against a great well rounded fighter like Shamrock. We know wer’re going to see an amazing display of standup skills from lee, but will shamrock try to stand and bang or throw one or two punch combos to set up the takedown. I’m picking Shamrock via sub. round 2.
I agree with Adam in seeing Le’s ground game…I don’t recall seeing it tested yet. Shamrock should test it (although I thought he was going to take Phil Baroni down…he stood up), and we’ll see. This is a great test for Le (you know he has to have been working on his ground defense), and should add some important eyes on his future if he gets through Shamrock. Le via TKO, round 1.