Fight fans! Saturday, Dec. 19 is the return of Cung Le at Strikeforce: Evolution at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA. It’s live on Showtime, starting at 10:00 pm ET. Cung Le will step back into the cage after taking some time off to do a few movies. Cung Le forced to give up his belt, because he was so busy being a movie star that he could not defend his title.
Scott Smith will be Cung Le’s welcome back to cage fight. I’m sure that Cung Le fans are very happy to see him back in the cage and hope he has his eye on the middleweight championship.
Josh Thomson and Gilbert Melendez will duke it out to see who is the real light heavy champion. Matt Lindland and King Mo will step into the Strikeforce cage for the first time.
This will be Strikeforce last event of 2009 and with the fighters on this card it should go out with a big bang and lots of fireworks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAM_J3-Wh3c[/youtube]
The Main card
Cung Le (6-0) vs. Scott Smith (16-6)
Who wouldn’t be excited to see Cung le back in the cage? Cung Le has a very unorthodox kick-heavy stand up style and you can ask Frank Shamrock if he kicks hard because he broke Frank’s arm with kicks. Cung Le is undefeated and one of the best stand up fighters in the division. He is very aggressive with his kicks and all 6 of his fight has been won by either KO or TKO. We have never seen what Cung Le can do on the ground and I do not think we will see it in the fight with Scott Smith.
Scott Smith is a incrediblele warrior and has been in some of the greatest brawls in MMA. Scott’s last fight was against Nick Diaz, where he was submitted in the 3 round by a rear naked choke.
Scott could have a chance to beat Cung Le, but he will have to get through his devastating kick. I am woundering after 21 months will Cung Le suffer from ring rust.
My pick: Cung Le 2rd tko
Josh Thomson (16-2) vs. Gilbert Melendez (16-2)
Josh Thomson is on a 8 fight win streak and the last time these two meet Thomson won by unanimous Decision.
Gilbert Melendez is on a two fight win streak and finished his last two fight by KO and a TKO.
Melendez is looking for revenge from the first loss to Thomson. This should be a great fight with a ton of action.
My pick: John Thomson
Matt Lindland (21-6) vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2)
Matt Lindland has a great fight resume with greats like Rampage Jackson, Fedor, and Vitor Belfort. His last fight was in January where he was knocked out by Victor Belfort in the first round.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was fighting for Dream, but now has found a new home fighting with Strikeforce. Fighting out of Brazil you know he has a great ground game with 9 out of his 10 victory’s came by way of submission.
Matt Lind will have the advantage in the the stand up game. Matt is no stranger to the ground but I don’t think he wants to go to the ground with Souza.
My pick:Matt Lindland
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal (5-0) vs. Mike Whitehead (24-6)
Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal is so far undefeated in his MMA career. He also has the biggest mouth in all of MMA. Lawal has finished 4 of his 5 fight by TKO and has a decent stand up. His last fight was with Mark Kerr where he had a devastating knockout only 25 seconds of the first round.
Mike Whitehead was on a 12 fight win streak until he lost to Rento Saobral, since then he has racked up two victories. Out of his 24 victories, he has 13 submissions and 5 TKOs so I would look for this fight to end up on the ground.
Mike White should have the advantage going into this fight with his experance on his side, plus it always helps training out of Extreme Couture.
My pick: Mike Whitehead
Robbie Lawler vs. Trevor Prangley (22-5)
Trevor Prangley has withdrawn form the fight due to injury. Strikeforce is seeking a replace at the time, but with only 4 days notice it could be hard to find a fight to replace Prangley.
Preliminary Bouts:
Scott Lighty (5-0) vs. Antwain Britt (9-3)
Mypick: Scott Lighty
Bryan Travers (13-1) vs. Daisuke Nakamura (20-11)
My pick: Daisuke Nakamura
Luis Mendoza (2-0) vs. Juan Nunez (1-1)
My pick: Luis Mendoza
Alex Trevino (4-1) vs. Bobby Stack (6-1)
My pick: Alex Trevino
Alex Crispim (3-2) vs. AJ Fonseca (4-1)
My pick: Alex Crispim
Leave a comment and tell me who you think might win.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I honestly hate seeing Smith being put in to this match with Kung, it’s not even like a fight between two guys that should ever fight. Two years off or not, this is going to be brutal.
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Yo what up James. I’ve been watchin fights the last couple weeks and I’m ready for blood blood. I think I’m addicted!
Cung Le – 1st round ko
Melendez
Souza
Whitehead
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Good to hear. Looks like some good picks you there. Very excited to see Cung Le fighting again. He is just on another level them everyone else.
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John I think your right. Scott Smith is about to have a bad night.
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