SAN JOSE, Calif. — Newly crowned Strikeforce World Middleweight Champion, Cung Le (22-0), has been selected to appear in the first-ever mixed martial arts trading card series manufactured by Donruss Trading Card Company.
Slated for release in mid-July, “Ring Kings,” produced as an insert series for the larger Donruss “Americana II” set, will be comprised of approximately 30 different trading cards featuring a collection of the sport’s top superstars. Several editions of the Le card, including an autographed version and a version containing swatches taken from Le’s competition shorts, will be issued.
“We’re excited to be able to include Cung in our program,” said Scott Prusha, Marketing Director for Donruss. “Cung is an extremely exciting fighter and winning the Strikeforce championship was really a big thing.”
Le’s third round TKO of mixed martial arts legend, Frank Shamrock, which aired live on SHOWTIME on Saturday, March 29th, earned the Vietnamese-born fighter the Strikeforce world title and marked his greatest professional victory to date.
Prior to entering the world of mixed martial arts in 2006, Le pioneered the Chinese combat discipline of San Shou kickboxing, which incorporates devastating throwing techniques as well as striking, and amassed a perfect 16-0 record in the world of professional kickboxing. Several of his conquests in the kickboxing ring have aired repeatedly on ESPN and ESPN2.
More recently, Le has been touted as Hollywood’s next big martial arts film star. His role in the forthcoming release, Fighting, co-starring Terrence Howard, will mark Le’s debut on the silver screen. Le was also recently cast in the silver screen adaptation of smash hit video game franchise, Tekken, slated for release next year.
The Americana product, which Donruss launched last year, pays tribute to the societal contributions and achievements of various, prominent figures ranging from award-winning actors Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn to legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin to President George W. Bush. Like Donruss’ other offerings, cards from the Americana II set will be packaged and sold in both retail and hobby stores nationwide.
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 2