Le Defeats Shamrock In The "Battle For San Jose"

After taking abuse and dancing confidently for two straight rounds, both which he lost on the judges cards, Frank Shamrock finally decided to turn it on and unleashed an onslaught of combo punches and a beautiful Thai knee to the head of his challenger Cung Le. It wasn't enough. Cung weathered the storm and returned fire but it was a particular roundhouse kick to Shamrock's arm in the final second of the 3rd round that would earn him the Strikeforce Middleweight Title. Shamrock was visibly hurt by the kick and could not even make it to the stool in his corner. Later, both men would say they could hear the cracking of bones as Frank collapsed to the mat after telling the ref he could not continue.

Cung Le was impressive as always with his kicks, but his punching was sloppy. He was just able to put Frank where he wanted with those long legs and not allow Shamrock to get his hands in range while taking punishment that would slowly add up and finally, literally, break him. Frank went for but one takedown which he did not get as he chose to stand with the legendary San Shou striker. Either Shamrock's ego is that out of control that he doesn't think he needs to use the ground game, his best weapon, or his gameplan was just that bad. Cung Le's plan was great and though obviously beginning to tire as the fight drew on, he gutted it out and pulled the upset win over the "legend."

Drew Fickett (33-5) took little time defeating Jae Suk Lim via guillotine setting up his original fight with Jake Shields for the Strikeforce Welterweight Title. Jake pulled out of the fight due to injury but in 1:14 Fickett put himself back in the upcoming title fight.

Gilbert Melendez rebounded from the 1st loss of his career to straight dominated Gabe Lemley by TKO in the 2nd. "El Nino" seemed to want to prove his standing as a top Lightweight in the world and poor Gabe never stood a chance.

Joey Villasenor got the KO win in the 1st while Jesse Jones, Darren Uyenoyama, Wayne Cole, Billy Evangelista, and one Tiki Ghosn (who pulled an upset ending his 4 fight losing streak and defeating formerly undefeated Luke Stewart) all got wins as well. 7 correct out of 9 on my picks for this card.

On the side, Mike Kyle was allowed to fight on this card after a 2-year ban from the sport. Many in the UG MMA community (you know who you are) banded together to sign a HUGE online petition to ban this fighter from the sport forever. Mike is the guy who actually bit Wes Sims in a fight, thumbed Krzysztof Soszynski in the eye bad enough for him not to be able to continue, and against Brian Olsen completely lost his shit and had to be restrained by 2 refs after illegal actions! Here is the proof.
http://www.whaledog.com/2006/06/this-is-why-mike-kyle-was-suspended.php
The guy is a piece of shit and I can't believe Gary Shaw signed this fucker to Pro Elite. This guy should be banned for life and is everything we don't want in the sport of MMA. If you agree please email www.proelite.com and let them know MMA fans don't want cheaters and thugs in our sport. Thank you.