Kickboxing champion Cung Le let his fists do the talking for once with a devastating one-punch knockout of Rich Franklin in the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first event in Macau early on Sunday.
Le’s win in the main event at the Venetian hotel takes him a step closer to a shot at the middleweight title but after an intense training camp and strict diet to make weight the 40-year-old knew exactly what the victory would bring.
“I know it’s going to lead to some large pizzas,” Le told a news conference after the fight.
Le, who was born in the former Saigon and left in a helicopter with his family days before the fall, is one of the few UFC fighters who rely on traditional Chinese martial arts and his biggest weapons have been his array of kicks.
“I’ve been working a lot on my hands because at one point my foot was messed up so I didn’t get a chance to kick much during training. But my trainer Scott Sheeley worked my hands to death and I got the knockout with my hands, it’s amazing,” he said.
While the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) is relatively new in China, the UFC’s Asia chief, Mark Fischer, said the event was a sell-out of almost 8,500 and had been a success.
