Former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Cung Le will take on Wanderlei Silva in the co-main event of the UFC 139: "Henderson vs. Shogun" pay-per-view on Nov. 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
It will be the first appearance for "The Axe Murderer" since going stiff at the hands of Chris Leben, who "crippled" the PRIDE legend at UFC 132 earlier this year. The defeat dropped Silva (33-11-1) to 2-4 since his Octagon debut, a three round unanimous decision loss against Chuck Liddell back in late 2007.
But according to Le, that doesn't make him any less dangerous -- and that's something the "keyboard warriors" wouldn't know anything about.
"He's kind of like a warrior that has his back against the wall. A lot of times that's more dangerous ... Wanderlei is not ready to retire. He's gonna be more dangerous, he's gonna come and fight a lot harder. He chooses to step in the cage and so do I. It doesn't make me feel good about myself to think I might be the one to retire him, or that he might get hurt. It takes a lot to be a fighter, it takes a lot to step inside the cage and for people to say certain things that they don't know about, it's kind of disrespectful. There's plenty of keyboard warriors out there that think they know it all and they never respect a minute doing what we do."
The inactive Le (7-1) hasn't been seen and hardly heard from since avenging a knockout loss to Scott Smith back in June 2010. That win marked just his third fight in as many years and the road seemed clear for a full commitment to Hollywood.
Until the UFC came calling.
Hear more from the San Shou striker, who breaks down his Octagon debut and pending bout against Wandy, in his video interview with MMA Weekly, after the jump.
Any "keyboard warriors" out there want to take Le to task for his comments? Or did he just say what every fighter is thinking? And how do you see his fight against Silva unfolding?
Thoughts?