Saturday night on Showtime, EliteXC and Strikeforce put on another amazing show. This time, the main event easily stole the show.

In a captivating match-up, Sanshou-kickboxer Cung Le defeated Frank Shamrock to capture the Strikeforce middleweight title.

The HP Pavilion in San Jose was packed for the “Battle of San Jose”–both men claim the city as their home. While both fighters had their fans, Cung Le’s contingent obviously outnumbered Shamrock’s as evidenced by the Vietnamese flags waving throughout the arena. The packed crowd made for an awesome atmosphere, with the fans becoming increasingly loud as the main event progressed.

Frank Shamrock promised that he would stand up and bang with Cung Le, and he did not disappoint. Shamrock only tried a few takedowns, and Le was able to evade them and keep it a stand-up fight. Le dominated the first round with his kicks, as Shamrock seemed amused in general by the fight. EliteXC announcers Mauro Ranallo and Stephen Quadros were quick to note the mind games that Shamrock was playing with Le, which is really nothing new from Shamrock.

The second round featured more of the same, with Le peppering Shamrock with kicks. Still, Shamrock held his ground, and landed a few punches of his own. This fight was really picking up as it headed to the third round, although Le was clearly dominating.

The third round didn’t disappoint, either. Le continued to dominate, until Shamrock unleashed a flurry of punches. It was so unexpected the way the fight had been going, and Shamrock immediately turned it around, hurting Le with his strikes. At that point, I was shocked–Shamrock was back from the dead, and he was going to pull this thing off!

As fast as Shamrock got the momentum, he lost it–somehow, Le was able to thwart his attack and land a serious of vicious kicks of his own. One of the kicks hit Shamrock’s arm, and he was clearly in agony, leaning against the cage. As Le pummeled him into the side of the cage to end the round, Shamrock amazingly threw a punch with his injured arm. At the time, I didn’t realize how amazing the punch was.

After the round, Shamrock slumped into his corner, not only battling his injured arm, but clearly also battling the stars in his eyes. Le had broken his arm and knocked him silly, and he had no choice but to retire from the match. Cung Le was the new Strikeforce Middleweight Champion.

Initially, I was a bit disappointed that the match ended after three rounds, but it was for the best. Even if Shamrock hadn’t of hurt his arm, I don’t know that he wouldn’t have gotten knocked out later in the fight. Le’s kicks were devastating, and Quadros and Ranallo noted that Shamrock seemed to have understimated them.

This was perhaps the best MMA fight I’ve seen all year. It had the action of UFC 80 mixed with an unbelievable atmosphere. On top of that, Cung Le’s style is amazing–it made for kind of fight that Art Davie must have dreamed about when he created the UFC. His kicking ability is so far beyond most that he’s able to rely on it the entire match. Supposedly, he’s a good grappler, too, which means he’s only scratching the surface of what he can do in the cage.

If you haven’t seen this show, make an effort to do so. The undercard wasn’t too shabby, and the main event is what MMA is all about. It was another solid event from EliteXC and Strikeforce, and it looks like EliteXC has succeeded again in creating a new star to add to it’s growing stable.

Tags: Battle of San Jose, Cung Le, EliteXC, Frank Shamrock, Strikeforce