MMAWeekly reports:

 

An elbow injury is currently keeping Le from training, but according to Coker, his schedule is open. Once healed, he should re-emerge in his adopted sport.

"Otherwise, he would be fighting on this show (in April)," said Coker of Strikeforce's Showtime event on the 11th. "But you will see Cung Le back in the cage in Strikeforce at least two times before the end of the year."

Coker also says a rematch with Frank Shamrock, from whom Le took the Strikeforce middleweight title in a fight that broke Shamrock's arm, is inevitable.

"I haven't sat down and talked to Frank about it, but the fight between Frank and Cung, number 2, is a fight that should actually happen before the end of 09," confirmed Coker.

Scott Coker and Monte Cox have also talked about a Lawler vs Cung Le unification bout this year.  Monte Cox said that they have no desire to fight Joey Villasenor again, and if Lawler can't fight Le soon, they would love to fight Misaki or Manhoef next.

Is it me, or does the prospect of Lawler versus either Le, Manhoef, Cyborg, Trigg, Santiago, Shamrock, or Misaki ALL sound incredibly good? That's not including Joey Villasenor, Terry Martin, and Scott Smith in the picture. The Strikeforce Middle Weight contender picture looks VERY promising and should be a main focus in their future events, along with their Light Weight class.

As for 2009, a Cung Le rematch with Frank Shamrock and a title unification bout with Robbie Lawler should produce good gate and rating numbers for Strikeforce. Either way, this should be a win win situation for the fans since all their bouts will be showed in either Showtime or CBS.