A recent title card at UFC 139 showed UFC fighter Cung Le with the Communist Vietnamese Flag, even though Cung Le was born in South Vietnam three days before the fall of Saigon and represents San Jose, California. Either someone working for the UFC made a huge error or he really is currently a Vietnamese national. Which would be a huge surprise to many of his Vietnamese-Americans fans who understand what he’s representing by wearing the three stripes flag of South Vietnam on the shorts sold on his website.
This wouldn’t be the first time the UFC has been questioned in terms of marketing a fighter’s heritage and ethnic background. Critics have said the UFC wrongfully played on the former Heavyweight champion’s Cain Velasquez Nationalistic pride. Even Cain said that at first he was surprised at the promo of his fight between Brock Lesnar, but eventually responded that to him it makes sense.
However, would using the current flag of Vietnam make sense to Cung Le and his fans? I dispute that Cung Le is an American (USA) by Nationality but also represents his heritage/ethnic background. It’s no different than how Mark Munoz represents his Filipino heritage and the same way Cain represents his Mexican heritage.
As much as I would like to blame someone from the UFC for the error, ironically even his UFC.com fighter profile does support the fact that he is not a Vietnamese National. He is quoted as describing himself as being the only American Wushu King athlete to have three World medals and his bio includes both competing and coaching for Team USA.
- Excited
- Fascinated
- Amused
- Disgusted
- Sad
- Angry
