EliteXC/Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Cung

Frank didn't take shots for two reasons....

1. Cung Le is a better wrestler than Shamrock. Taking a shot from the outside, especially the way that Cung uses movement and space, would not be a very effective strategy,

2. It would have put him in a bad position to eat some strikes, as I already stated that Cung is a better wrestler. Shamrock would have been in a vulnerable position.

The only reason that Cung wouldn't use his better takedowns to take Shamrock to the ground, is because he wouldn't want to play a submission game with him. We can't pretend like he didn't try to take Cung down, when you could see that everytime he had an opportunity to leap on him and put him down... he tried. We can't say that they were half hearted, just because Cung was able to escape.

Shamrock lost to a better fighter. Bad stylistic match-up for him. He dominates Shamrock on their feet, and Shamrock has a slim chance of taking the fight to the ground.

 

The fight is posted on Dailymotion today.

 

Seems to me that you are doing nothing more than making excuses for Shamrock's loss. If he only wanted to stand with him... then why did he try to take him down when the opportunity presented itself? Did you see how easy Cung was able to get out of that situation? It wasn't because it was a "weak assed" attempt... it was because he couldn't take him down. Stop making excuses. Why on earth would Shamrock bother trying a "weak assed" takedown attempt? You aren't even making sense. I didn't contradict myself at all, maybe you just have some reading comprehension problems. Shamrock knows that Cung is a better wrestler, so he only tried takedowns when the opportunity for a takedown came up... and it didn't come up often as Cung was using movement, and space. Cung was the better fighter, period. He didn't prove himself on the ground, I never said that he did, and he didn't have to.

 

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4w9i0_frank-shamrock-vs-cung-le-strikefor_sport

I guess that Shamrock was already prepared to go back on his promise to stand with Cung Le 23 seconds into the fight.:-( He was also willing to call Cung down into his guard... stop making excuses. Shamrock didn't take the fight to the ground because he couldn't get the fight to the ground.

 

For the record, Lawler would smash Cung Le.

 

"Seasoned MMA writers?" I happen to be pretty deep in the MMA world. I have been since 1994. That's 14 years of following, and training in MMA. Do you know how many times that I have heard a fighter "promise" to stand with his opponent? Do you know that it just always HAPPENS to be against a guy who is better on their feet, but has good takedown defense? They make that "promise" because they honestly don't believe that they will be able to score a takedown to begin with. However, in every single fight... you see that "promise" go out the window if opportunity presents itself... like Shamrock tried to do 23 seconds into the fight. I'm not knocking on your or anything... but when you are in an MMA fight, or even just heavy MMA sparring/rolling, ect... you can tell rather quick what your chances are of taking your opponent down. When you lock up with them, or try one takedown attempt, it gives you a good feel of exactly how that is going to go. The fact that Shamrock was able to get behind Cung, lock his hands, and have GREAT position for a takedown, and was still unable to take him down shows a lot. I think that it was rather clear from that point on to Frank that his chances of taking Cung down were slim. So he figured that he should just focus on the stand up game, and hope to land something huge. Let's not forget that they trained together... I am sure that Frank already knew how good Cung's takedown defense, and wrestling was.

If you listened to most people before the fight, people were trying to say that Shamrock was a better standup fighter than Le. I never believed that, but I think that a lot of people did, and Shamrock might have started believing it too. He probably felt that was his best chance to win.

 

I have a feeling that we will find out.

 

Elaborate?

 

Its the Pinoy blood in him ..Hes got PAC power!:yep

 

Better all around fighter basically. He has serious power, if Lawler lands like Frank or even Tony Frykland did that fight is done. Since moving to 185 Lawler has on a serius tear and has shown maturation as a fighter and profesional athlete, even in losing to Mayhem he looked great until getting subbed, which wouldn't happen against Le.

 

Lawler gets KO'd by a head Kick from Cung.

 

I'll take whatever odds you're laying out. Cung Le will punish Robbie Lawler. Lawler's wild swings will walk him into Cung's feet - face first all night long. Luckily, we might see this fight sooner than later. It will take months for Shamrock to heal properly. That gives Le some free time to face some of the other Strikeforce/Elite XC fighters.

 

I didn't really want to just counter stupidly going with my instincts based on limited exposure (I've seen like, three of Lawler's fights) :yep - but yeah, this is more in line with what I thought when confronted with the idea of Cung vs. Robbie. Would expect it to end well within the distance, likely never even getting to the ground.