Cung Le Takes Center Stage On NBC

SAN JOSE, Calif. —Strikeforce World Middleweight (185 lb. limit) Champion, Cung Le, will seize the

spotlight during an all-new “Strikeforce on NBC” episode on Saturday night.

The special, 30-minute program, devoted entirely to the one-of-a-kind knockout artist, will showcase Le’s

stoppages of Mike Altman and “Mr. Unbreakable” Brian Warren and will revisit his crushing knockouts of

“The Ultimate Fighter” season three veteran, Sam “The Squeeze” Morgan, and Tony “The Freak” Fryklund.

Also included in the show is a feature segment that touches on the personal life of Le, who fled a war-torn

Vietnam, just days before the fall of Saigon, as a baby in his mother’s arms in 1975.

Le’s victories over Altman and Warren were ranked number one and two, respectively, according to the

results of an online poll that gave fans the opportunity to vote for their all-time favorite Strikeforce knockout

on the promotion’s official website, www.strikeforce.com, last week.

A former junior college and high school wrestling star, Le has pioneered the Chinese stand-up fighting art of

San Shou, which aided his run to a perfect 16-0 record in the sport of professional kickboxing and an

International Kickboxing Federation (IKF) world championship. His kickboxing conquests, which included

three victories in K-1 North America “Superfights,” have aired repeatedly on ESPN and ESPN2.

Two years after making his highly-anticipated mixed martial arts (MMA) debut, Le notched what is

undoubtedly the greatest win of his career - a third round TKO of former UFC middleweight champion and

MMA legend, Frank Shamrock on March 29th of this year. The live SHOWTIME televised victory earned Le

the Strikeforce middleweight crown.

Le recently returned home from a two month stay in Berlin, where he completed his third acting stint for the

silver screen, a supporting role in the science fiction thriller, “Pandorum,” which co-stars award-winning

actors Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma, Alpha Dog). The film is slated for release next fall.

"Strikeforce on NBC," the first 52-week mixed martial arts series in network television history, airs every

Saturday, immediately following NBC’s hit poker tournament series, "Poker After Dark" (check local listings).

MMA legend Ken Shamrock and award-winning ESPN announcer, Lon McEachern, co-host each program

and provide expert, play-by-play commentary.

About Strikeforce:

Strikeforce is a world-class mixed martial arts cage fight promotion which, on Friday, March 10, 2006, made

history with its “Shamrock vs. Gracie” event, the first sanctioned mixed martial arts fight card in California

state history. The star-studded extravaganza, which pitted legendary champion Frank Shamrock against

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Cesar Gracie at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, played host to a sold-out, record

crowd of 18,265. Since 1995, Strikeforce has been the exclusive provider of martial arts programming for

ESPN and, after 12 years of success as a leading, world championship kickboxing promotion, the company

unveiled its mixed martial arts series with “Shamrock vs. Gracie.” Since then, it has co-produced the first

SHOWTIME PPV mixed martial arts event in history with its world championship “Shamrock vs. Baroni” card

on June 22, 2007 followed by the first-ever mixed martial arts event at the world-famous Playboy Mansion on

September 29, 2007. On April 12th of this year, Strikeforce launched the first-ever 52 week MMA series on

one of the four major television networks in The U.S. – NBC.

Contact:

Mike Afromowitz, Strikeforce – mafromowitz@strikeforce.com

- From Strikeforce with a little editing from us (color, etc...)

Subject to change

(12/5/08)