Cung Le and the Art of Sanshou in MMA

It's been over two years since Cung Le claimed the Strikeforce Middleweight title, snapping Frank Shamrock's arm with a well placed kick.  Since that time, Cung has greatly faded in the MMA world, taking a lengthy leave of absence, forfeiting the title, and collecting his first loss.  But on Saturday, as MMA eyes turn to Fedor Emelianenko v. Fabricio Werdum, Cung Le returns to action, rematching Scott Smith.  It's a compelling, exciting match-up, and one that every MMA fan who appreciates quality stand-up action should anticipate.

When Cung Le steps back into the cage Saturday, one word you will hear come up quite a bit is "Sanshou".  The sport where Cung first made his name, Sanshou is very rarely represented in MMA.  As a result, though many people can identify Le as a Sanshou fighter, few know exactly what Sanshou entails.

A Chinese martial art, Sanshou (also known as Sanda) is a hand to hand combat style, which gained popularity in the 20th century thanks to Chinese tournaments.  Like Sambo in Russia, Sanshou was used by the military to help train their troops.  Competitions are point based, with an emphasis on effective striking and throws. 

Watch one of Le's old Sanshou fights, and you will not see many differences from his MMA bouts.  A very proud Sanshou representative, Le has stayed true to his Sanshou roots, utilizing elements from that sport to achieve positive results in MMA.  Specifically, Le uses certain Sanshou techniques to his advantage:

• Striking variety - This is probably Cung Le's greatest strength.  The man simply has a huge arsenal of kicks at his disposal.  As a result, you can never be sure exactly what he is throwing.  Most fighters stick to the basics with kicks, but Le will throw from both legs, and at targets all up and down his opponent's body.  A great example of this is seen twice in round 1 of the first Smith bout.  Early on, Le hits a gorgeous spinning back kick that Smith sees coming, but just can not figure out how to block.  Later in the round, he surprises Smith again by using a quick head kick thrown off his lead leg - a very rare kick, but executed beautifully.  Which brings us to...
  
• Striking accuracy - All the kicks in the world would mean nothing if they didn't land.  But they do.  Just ask Frank Shamrock and his shattered arm.
• Incorporating punches - While all the attention is put on Le's kicks (and rightly so), he uses his hands very well.  Check out his MMA debut against Mike Altman, where he ends Altman's night with a nice punch.
• Takedown defense - It's no secret that Le wants to keep his fights standing.  He usually gets his way, thanks to his Sanshou-inspired takedown defense.  In Sanshou, takedowns score highly, and Le used them well.  Although he does not use takedowns much himself in MMA, he has maintained the use of his Sanshou defense in order to stop others.  Shamrock attempted to bring their fight to the ground on a few occasions, and never once succeeded.  When Le does use his throws, he typically keeps on his own feet, again nullifying the ground game.  This is another holdover from his Sanshou training, where a takedown scores higher if you maintain your feet while performing the throw. Le uses this skill to keep the fight in his comfort zone at all times.
  
• Volume of strikes - Sanshou can be won by knockout, but it is largely a point-based style, which means that a higher volume of effective strikes leads to victory.  Le keeps up that volume in MMA, keeping his opponent on the defense.

This last point leads to the criticism commonly thrown at Le - that he is a point fighter who lacks consistent knockout power.  Critics of Le feel that, by simply looking to outpoint his opponent, Le lets them stay in the fight, keeping the door open for a comeback.  And that is exactly how things played out in the first Smith fight.  Le dominated the early portion, but Smith, the best come from behind fighter in the game today, stayed in it, and was able to KO Le in the 3rd. 

On Saturday, a lot of questions should be answered about Cung Le.  Was the Smith loss due to ring rust?  Age (Cung is 38)?  Or has he simply reached his peak?  Will he be able to put Smith down this time before Smith's inevitable final surge?

For anyone who has seen many of Le's fights, Saturday will likely present few surprises.  At his core, Cung Le is a Sanshou fighter, and he will likely remain a Sanshou fighter throughout his MMA career.  There will be no huge change of style from Le - we know what to expect from him.  And what we can expect is a beautiful stand-up attack, mixing in the kinds of kicks you just don't see enough of in MMA.  It's a chance to watch a true master of a rarely used stand-up form display his skills.  As a stand-up fan, I can't wait.

Watch Le in a technically gorgeous Sanshou exhibition: