International superstar Cung Le is one of the few guys in the sport of mixed martial arts, aside from Randy Couture, to successfully make it as both fighter and Hollywood actor. Currently filming Dragon Eyes, his first major role in a motion picture, Cung still has his eye on the cage and carries a strong desire to compete.
I caught up with Cung after a long day of shooting in Baton Rouge, LA; the setting for Dragon Eyes. We spoke briefly about his role in the film in addition to commenting on Paul Daley's recent statement that the San Shou master is in his top 4 of fights he wants next.
"The fact that he [Paul] wants to fight me lets me know I'm still here; I'm still a big name fighter. The up and coming guys like Daley want to climb to the top as fast as they can and I think its cool that he wants a fight with me. Right now I'm a little busy but for now grab a ticket and the line forms to the left.
I'll fight anyone. If Strikeforce makes the match and I free up some time, I'm game. When someone calls you out, Strikeforce makes the final decision and it's usually who puts the most butts in the seats. Maybe they build up Paul Daley a little more and get him a bigger fan base and things can happen. Obviously, I'm not going to cut any weight to fight him. He would have to meet me at 185.
When he fought 185ers, he fought them at 170, like Scott Smith. It's just like Trevor Prangley told me. When you cut a lot of weight like that, you lose lots of fluids that help cushion your skull and brain, hence you lose your chin. Scott has never been down to that weight. He looked like a cancer patient going in to fight. I called that fight. I knew as soon as Smith got tapped on the chin, he was going to sleep.
Guys like Paul with good hands and solid muay thai; those are guys I fought all day coming up in my San Shou career. Guys with with heavy hands. I think he is a good matchup for me but I think he is going to take a run at the 170 lb title. I think he poses many threats at that weight. As far as a fight with the champ, Diaz has a good reach and head movement but also great jiu jitsu and ground game. I actually got Diaz in that fight."
Cung then goes on to talk about Dragon Eyes and another movie he will be working on with Quentin Tarantino, Russell Crowe and RZA called The Man with the Iron Fist.
"I feel privileged to be able to play this big of a role in a major motion picture. The people I got work with on this movie are great. Joel Silver and Courtney Solomon are producing it and we have a cutting edge director in John Hyams, who directed Smashing Machine with Mark Kerr and the latest Universal Soldier with Andrei Arlovski and Mike Pyle.
I wrapped up shooting today with Jean-Claude Van Damme, who just signed on to the project. Really amazing guy; it was great working with him. We had a little skirmish and he still has those great kicks. We did some light sparring for our scene and things got a little heated up and we were actually throwing kicks at each others face. Gilbert Melendez and Dan Henderson are going to be a part of it too. The director actually brought out Gilbert's natural acting chops.
Many people will watch it just to see how my acting is but I guarantee you the fight scenes are going to blow you away. People have never seen the kind of action I'm going to bring to the table. I made something special here. I brought a little taste of Hong Kong cinema and western film making and we met somewhere in between. I did all the fight choreography myself.
Also in about two weeks, I'm going to be working with Quentin Tarantino on a movie called The Man with the Iron Fist. It is directed by the RZA and stars Russell Crowe and Batista."
For more info on Cung Le and to stay up to date with his latest projects and fights, check his website, Cungle.com.
