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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Cung Le picked up perhaps his best career win in November when he knocked out former UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin at UFC on Fuel 6. At 40 years old, it's reasonable to believe he's nearing the end of his career, and with some nagging injuries he's certainly going to be sidelined, but Le said this week that he's still got some time left.
"I feel like I've still got some fights left in me, so I'm not going to retire right away," he said in an interview with MMAWeekly.com. "I'm going to make sure I heal right this time because I think getting into Macao after hurting my foot really bad, and I did have some elbow problems leading up to that fight. I'm just glad I got two big wins in the UFC, and as soon as I heal up I think I'm going to be gearing up again."
He'll be healing up from some bone chips that hampered his elbow both before and after the Franklin fight, describing the issues he was having during the last several months.
"Right after I came back from the media tour in China to promote the fight, like a bone chip must have fell into the crease in my arm because it was locking up," he said. "So I went to the doctor and they did a 3-D x-ray and they saw a bunch of bone spurs. He went in there and cleaned up as much as he could so I was able to still fight.
"That was six weeks before my fight against Rich. Then after the fight just training and during the fight when I was throwing punches, I felt something weird in my arm. I threw with everything I had and when I followed through I felt something weird in my elbow and then the same thing happened where a bone chip must have slipped down there and my arm started locking up."
It won't be a quick recovery process, and Le joked that his age will delay things further, but he plans on returning as quickly as he can.
"It takes a little bit longer to heal. I'm 40 years old," he said. "But I want to make a proper rehab and we'll take it from there."
Penick's Analysis: Le, who was one of the biggest factors in Strikeforce's early MMA success, is finding second life in the UFC despite a very limited time left in MMA. Though he lost his debut to Wanderlei Silva, his follow up wins over Patrick Cote and Rich Franklin were great, and when he can come back healthy he can try to ride out a couple more wins to finish out his career in a good spot on the UFC's roster. But he's smart to make sure he's healthy before trying to get back in there, and while he was joking about his healing time, it's definitely a true factor with his age.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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