When you’re three weeks away from being 39 years old and having no problem getting work in the pictures, the incentive to fight loses something -- even if you’re 7-1 in mixed martial arts and every fight ended in a KO.
Cung Le knows the feeling. The erstwhile Sanshou kickboxer-cum-mixed martial artist has five movies coming out in the next year -- the biggest a Universal Pictures movie called "The Man With the Iron Fists", which stars Russell Crowe with a screenplay by Eli Roth and hip hop artist RZA. At this point, as a burgeoning Hollywood commodity, Le isn’t exactly sure if and when he’ll fight again.
But the fact that his name has been dangled about for a fight against current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva can’t help but raise his eyebrows just a little.
“I’m just honored to be brought up for the fight,” he said after UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre. “Anderson Silva is pound-for-pound the best fighter out there. I’m just honored, and I don’t know what else to say. For it to happen, just like Jerry Maguire said, ‘show me the money.’”
A Silva bout is far-fetched right now, but another fight in general for the one-time Strikeforce 185-pound titleholder isn’t. Not exactly, anyway. Le says for him to continue fighting it would have “to be soon because the clock is ticking.” Yet when asked if that means it would happen in 2011 he says, “that would be impossible” due to his demanding work load.
“I’m doing well right now being in the films,” Le said. “A lot of people are telling me, 'you should just retire, you’re not going to fight.' Other people are saying 'you got to fight.' You can’t make everybody happy.”
If not Silva, you can see Le fight on the big screen in "The Man with the Iron Fists" later this year.
“Just to see Russell Crowe work was amazing, and just to be a big part of the film was amazing,” Le said. “I think I had the third most working days out of the whole cast, and then I got to kill like 20 people. I feel blessed.”
Cung Le knows the feeling. The erstwhile Sanshou kickboxer-cum-mixed martial artist has five movies coming out in the next year -- the biggest a Universal Pictures movie called "The Man With the Iron Fists", which stars Russell Crowe with a screenplay by Eli Roth and hip hop artist RZA. At this point, as a burgeoning Hollywood commodity, Le isn’t exactly sure if and when he’ll fight again.
But the fact that his name has been dangled about for a fight against current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva can’t help but raise his eyebrows just a little.
“I’m just honored to be brought up for the fight,” he said after UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre. “Anderson Silva is pound-for-pound the best fighter out there. I’m just honored, and I don’t know what else to say. For it to happen, just like Jerry Maguire said, ‘show me the money.’”
A Silva bout is far-fetched right now, but another fight in general for the one-time Strikeforce 185-pound titleholder isn’t. Not exactly, anyway. Le says for him to continue fighting it would have “to be soon because the clock is ticking.” Yet when asked if that means it would happen in 2011 he says, “that would be impossible” due to his demanding work load.
“I’m doing well right now being in the films,” Le said. “A lot of people are telling me, 'you should just retire, you’re not going to fight.' Other people are saying 'you got to fight.' You can’t make everybody happy.”
If not Silva, you can see Le fight on the big screen in "The Man with the Iron Fists" later this year.
“Just to see Russell Crowe work was amazing, and just to be a big part of the film was amazing,” Le said. “I think I had the third most working days out of the whole cast, and then I got to kill like 20 people. I feel blessed.”
