Strikeforce in San Jose

[James Kovacich]

On 3/10/06 Strikeforce FINALLy got Cesar Gracie vs. Frankshrock and Cung Le's MMA debut completed. I was there and the show went well. Cung Le fought a guy who he had previously beat in San Shou but he deserves a break for his first few fights. He said he plans to continue in MMA. He knocked out his opponent about 3 minutes into the 1st round. They didn't grapple but it was a nice knockout.

Cesar Gracie didn't look prepared at all. While waiting for the bell to ring at the start of the fight he was still and looked "cold" while Frank was definately "warm." Frank knocked out Cesar in about 10 secaonds.

Me and my wife were one of the few that actually clapped for both fighters as they came out. The crowd booed at Cesar. They actually booed at anyone not from San Jose or nearby.

 

[Kuk Sa Nim]

Greetings,

I too was there with a small army of students. We all had a great time and I thought the whole thing was well done. A couple of the matches could have been better made and/or just more exciting, but hey, what do you expect? Nothing is ever perfect. Overall, it was a very satisfying time, especially due to the fact that it was such an historical event on several levels.

-The 1st Calif Sanctioned MMA fights
- Frank Shamrock came out of semi-retirement
- Frank Shamrock and Cesar Gracie finally let their actual fighting do the talking
- Cung Le made his MMA debut
- This MMA event set a record in attendance with over 18,000 (which came in droves, despite nasty, cold rainy weather)

And I'm sure there are others, but those the main things that come to mind. I look forward to much more quality MMA events in Calif in the near future.

With brotherhood,
GM De Alba

ps: Frank KO'ed Cesar in 21 seconds (that's the official record anyway)

 

[James Kovacich]

ps: Frank KO'ed Cesar in 21 seconds (that's the official record anyway)

Thanx buudy! The place was crowded, it was the last fight and as soon as Frank went over to tell Cesar something ip close after the fight my brother-in-law said "let's get the hell outa here." And we did.

Do you remember the actual time for Cung Le's fight?

 

[Kuk Sa Nim]

Greetings,

I believe the record states that Cung Le's match was stopped at 3:51 of round one.

It was a fun fight, but they obviously picked the perfect first opponent for him. He obviously was used to and wanted to stand up with him, which was a mistake. It would have been interesting to see how Cung Le would have handled a grappling scenario, but I guess that's going to have to be reserved for future fights. Actually, they are smart to bring him into MMA at a "slower" clip.

It’s all good. I look forward to seeing him fight more. And I really hope Frank Shamrock gets more fights too. I heard that he’s still working on a Sakuraba match. That would be very cool.

With brotherhood,
GM De Alba

 

[ace]

Shamrock Ko'd Gracie in 21 seconds.