Former middleweight champion Cung Le has been entertaining combat sports fans for almost twenty years, and is celebrating five years with STRIKEFORCE this year. Known for his videogame-like punches and kicks, Cung’s success in MMA has propelled him into a burgeoning movie career that has seen him star in major motion pictures over the last couple years.
What has he been up to recently? Will we see him back in a STRIKEFORCE cage soon?
I spoke with the former champ recently to get the answers.
Johnny Preston: First off, how are you doing physically right now? Are you training?
Cung Le: I’ve been over in China filming a movie, and I didn’t train like a fighter, but I stayed in shape. I did cardio almost every day, and I lifted [weights] every other day. And since I haven’t been training for any fights, I’m pretty healthy.
JP: Give the fans an update on what you’ve been up to.
CL: Basically, I was in China in early October for a Wong Kar Wai movie called “The Grandmasters” for two weeks, and then I came back home for a day before flying out to Baton Rouge to film a movie called “Dragon Eyes” for two months. I was able to come home for Thanksgiving for three days, and then back to the set. On December 23rd, I wrapped “Dragon Eyes” and came home for Christmas, and then left on the 26th for China for another movie, “The Man with the Iron Fist” for nine weeks of filming. At the same time, “Grandmasters” was filming out there, so I worked a week on that film. It ended up with them wanting to expand my role, so now I’ve got to go back out to China at the end of April to do some more shooting. I’m getting to work with some big names. Wong Kar Wai is a big-time director out there, and Tony Leung, who’s like the Brad Pitt of China. On “Dragon Eyes,” I’m working with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Peter Weller, who played RoboCop. On “The Man with the Iron Fist,” we have Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, and Eli Roth, who directed “Hostel” and “Cabin Fever.” We have Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, who are the producers of the reboot of “The Thing.” Also, Marc produced “End of Days” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Eric produced “Dawn of the Dead.” So I’m in there working with some big names. Quentin Tarrantino’s over there, too…I have a picture of me choking him out, fooling around.
JP: Do you have any other projects in the works right now that you can talk about?
CL: “Dragon Eyes” went so well that right away they’re trying to sign me to a two-picture deal. So I’ll be starting “Dragon Eyes: Part II” as soon as they finish the script, which should happen within the next month or two.
JP: Let’s turn to MMA. The question on many fans’ minds is when we’ll see Cung Le back in the cage. What’s your response?
CL: Right now, I don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk to Scott Coker yet. Obviously, the UFC buying Strikeforce was probably a surprise to everybody. I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and talk about what’s really going to happen.
JP: You’ve professed in the past that you consider Dana White a friend. What are your thoughts on the recent UFC purchase of Strikeforce?
CL: I’m still surprised by it. I don’t know right now. I just want to sit down and understand what’s going on first before I can really comment on it.
JP: Where do you see the sport of MMA going from here?
CL: I see the sport of MMA gaining a lot of ground on football. For such a short amount of time, MMA has really exploded onto the scene. It’s surpassed boxing, and is as popular as any other major league sport. And it’s gotten enough mainstream media at such an early stage that it’s almost started running before even it even crawled.
JP: Are there any messages you’d like to send out to your fans?
CL: I just want to thank Zebra Mats, all the fans for supporting me, Cagehero, and I’m working on a deal with Clinch Gear. I’m just excited to be part of MMA. Thank you to everyone.
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