Cung Le not bothered by Bisping’s bullying

Cung Le lost by TKO in his last fight against Michael Bisping in Macau in August. (Zuffa LLC)

By Gareth A Davies, The Daily Telegraph

Vietnamese martial arts star Cung Le has launched the first verbal counter-strike on British middleweight Michael Bisping ahead of their main event in Macau this weekend by insisting that all the pressure is on ‘The Count’, who must win if he is to keep his nine-year UFC career on track.

After a series of barbs from Bisping over the last few weeks, 40-year-old Le, a former star of martial arts movies, said: “Bisping can say what he wants about my movie career but it’s going just fine, and we’ll see what he has to say about my buddy Channing Tatum when he’s sat Octagonside.

“Bisping is just putting pressure on himself with all this talk, it just makes me laugh. I come from a war-torn country where I lived in two refugee camps – his bullying doesn’t bother me.

“I’m taking one fight at a time. I’ve trained and put the hard work in, whatever happens on August 23 I know I’ve done everything I can to come out victorious. I’m confident but not cocky or arrogant, Bisping has come to fight and he’s a tough opponent,” added Le, who never lost in 17 bouts as a kickboxer, and has lost twice in his 11-fight MMA career, once to Wanderlei Silva in the UFC, the other to Scott Smith in Strikeforce.

Bisping lost last time out against Tim Kennedy returning after an eye injury, and has lost three of his last five fights, while Sanshou fighter Le has not fought since knocking out Rich Franklin in the first round of their contest on the Cotai Strip almost two years ago.

“Bisping needs to get through me first [before any thoughts of the British fighter facing Luke Rockhold] and I’m not giving him an easy pass. I’m the brick wall he’s going to run into, when he looks through me like that it just makes me more excited to get in there and fight.

“This fight is a must win for Mike Bisping, he’s put a lot of pressure on himself,” said Le. “If Bisping thinks I’m a one-trick pony, then he hasn’t done his research.

“I’ve had three surgeries in four months, I’m kicking myself that I didn’t do it earlier but I always worked around them. I don’t know where I stand in the division, we’ll find out on the 23rd, I just want to be on an exciting fight.

“I’m doing everything right for this fight so I can look back and have no regrets. I’m in the best shape of my life, I’m strong mentally, and now I can just relax and be the Cung Le I want to be. It’s going to be lightning followed by thunder. I’ll be better than I was against Franklin.”

Le has also revealed his work with an orphanage in China. “I decided to head up to one of the orphanages in a temple here. I used the money from my sponsors to buy some candy and toys and the rest of the money I donated to the monks. All the children there had been abandoned, it was very emotional. I’m back in my homeland now and I just wanted to do something nice, it’s not a lot but it’s a start.”

But he added there will be no charity when it comes to Bisping on Saturday night. “I enjoy competing, I’ll do it for as many years as I can, I don’t want to look back and wonder what could’ve happened. My friends say I’m a genetic freak, when I hit 40 things got a little harder but the diet I’m on now has made me feel great, I can still do all the same things I used to be able to do and now I’m ready to test myself, I’m ready to go.”

“I would love to fight Anderson Silva, it would be awesome to fight someone you look up to so much. It’s an honour to even been involved in a conversation about fighting him.”


(c)2014 The Daily Telegraph
Visit The Daily Telegraph
Distributed by MCT Information Services

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.