On the heels of his decision to vacate the Strikeforce middleweight title due to his budding Hollywood acting career, former 185-pound champion Cung Le could return to the San Jose-based promotion as early as next month for a war of attrition against the always-game Scott Smith.
MMAmania.com learned of the potential match-up from sources close to the event earlier today.
Strikeforce: 'Evolution' has been announced by the promotion as its next televised Showtime event, set for the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California on Dec. 19.
Le already has two movies set to be released in the near future, including the big screen version of the popular video game "Tekken" in which Le will play the role of Marshall Law. With three more movies in progress, the San Shou disciple was not expected to be back in action earlier than Spring 2010.
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker had considered creating an interim title in his absence; however, Le agreed to vacate the title altogether so that his part-time fight schedule no longer held the belt hostage.
Now Jason "Mayhem" Miller and Jake Shields will fight for that title tonight (Nov. 7) live on CBS. It’s already been well over a year since Le captured the gold from Frank Shamrock in his hometown and one has to wonder if the 37-year-old Le still has the chops to compete in the new-look Strikeforce.
Scott Smith could help answer that question if they do indeed throw down in December.
"Hands of Steel" was battered and beaten before submitting to a rear naked choke at the hands of Nick Diaz at last June's Strikeforce: "Lawler vs. Shields" event in St. Louis, Missouri.
The loss snapped a two fight win streak for the former UFC slugger. Prior to the Diaz fight, Smith lived up to his nickname by knocking out the hard-hitting Benji Radach with a little over a minute remaining in their three round slugfest. Smith was bruised and bloodied, but refused to back down and stunned "Razor" — and the rest of the crowd -- with his thrilling come-from-behind win.
A win over Le would certainly recapture some of that momentum.
Strikeforce: "Evolution" is expected to feature an interesting match up of styles between Matt "The Law" Lindland (21-6) and Ronald "Jacare" Souza (10-2). Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal (5-0) and Josh "The Punk" Thomson (16-2) are expected to be in action as well.
For the current Strikeforce: "Evolution" fight card click here.
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