Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Strikeforce Fights

5. Cung Le vs. Scott Smith 1 | Dec. 19, 2009

It's a real shame that Le started MMA as late as he did. A junior college wrestling standout who was one of the best, most unique strikers in the sport as a former san shou world champion, Le may have been one of the greatest fighters ever had he begun in the mid to late 90s. Instead, he debuted in early 2006, when he was about to turn 34. Nevertheless, Le had found immediate success and was 6-0 when he faced Smith, his last being an iconic knockout of Frank Shamrock that we will discuss later. His success, combined with his status as a hometown hero—he had lived in Strikeforce’s home base of San Jose ever since leaving Vietnam as a child refugee—had made Le one of the biggest stars of the promotion. Smith, meanwhile, was seven years younger than Le at 30, but was a well-traveled veteran with a record of 16-6. Smith was a brawler who could deliver technical, powerful strikes but had never been an elite contender, as high-level grapplers could exploit his weaknesses in that area, and he was also fairly easy to hit in the stand-up.

Early on, the fight appeared to be a complete mismatch. Smith came forward with wild, telegraphed kicks and punches, which Le easily dodged by circling away. Meanwhile, Le pelted his foe at will with kicks, including a lovely spinning back kick to the ribs that dropped Smith a little over a minute in, with Le coming very close to pounding him out with punches. After receiving roughly 400 undefended hammerfists right behind the ear and a number of clean punches, and referee Big John McCarthy milliseconds away from stopping it on many occasions, Smith stood up halfway through the round, absorbing a huge knee to the head on his way up. The rest of the stanza went no better for Smith, including eating a huge overhand left and a right head kick that contorted his head and neck. Smith showed tremendous toughness and heart to survive the stanza, but the only question is whether it should have been scored 10-8 or 10-7 Le. The second round was almost a repeat of the first, with Le devastating Smith with kicks to the body and legs before landing an even prettier spinning back-kick to the solar plexus than he did in the opening frame, once again flooring Smith! This time, however, Smith clinched for dear life and managed to stymie Le, whose ground game, even from the top, was highly limited. After McCarthy stood them back up, Smith had his first moments of success with half the fight already over, partially connecting on a series of straight rights. The pace slowed over the second half of the round, with Smith finishing strong with a right elbow to the head in a clinch and a few more right hands. Still, it was another round for Le and he only need to get through five more minutes to win an easy decision.

As the third and final stanza began, Le instantly landed another beautiful spinning back-kick, but this time to the head, launching Smith from the middle of the cage all the way to the fence, badly dazed. He landed several more jarring kicks, but yet again, Smith's toughness and heart kept him standing. Smith's punches all missed Le, and 2 minutes into the round, Le bashed Smith with several hard blows of his own against the cage, including a couple of flush right hooks to the side of the head. So confident was Le that he even took Smith down, though Smith quickly got back up to his feet. And then, with less than 2 minutes left, it happened. Le, looking winded, ducked his head when close to Smith without clinching, and Smith, whose power was in his right hand, improvised with a chopping downward left hook that hurt Le horribly, dropping him to his knees. As he gingerly got back up, Smith clobbered him with a right hook, another left hook and then his big right cross, dropping Le yet again, from where Smith pounded him out until McCarthy interceded. All of the commentators lost their minds, voices cracking from the insanity! Smith had just authored one of the most incredible, unlikeliest comebacks in MMA history. In a fight where he had been knocked down numerous times, almost finished, and had landed little of consequence for the first 13 minutes of a 15-minute contest. A true classic from Strikeforce.

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