On Sat. June, 14th 2008 Elite XC aired on Showtime. Fighters such as Nick Diaz defeated Muhsin Corbbrey by TKO, though the fight was not aired. The title bout featured KJ Noons defending his lightweight belt against Yves Edwards. KJ retained his title with a clear win over Yves. KJ gained the belt by first defeating Nick Diaz in November of 2007.
KJ told me his thoughts leading up to the fight, "I just trained so hard because I knew Yves is such a great competitor. He's got so many fights under him and I was going in as the underdog where I feel comfortable. I just trained super hard for this fight. Man, it was the longest I've ever trained for a fight because we were supposed to fight on April 26 and it got pushed back, you know a couple months, so this was definitely the longest camp for me. Yves used to be, I guess you could say, the UFC uncrowned champ back in the day."
KJ had the look of a champion after his win over Yves he said, "I caught him with a great shot. It was just a great feeling. Man, it's almost like a relief, all that buildup all that training to that point and to come out on top it's just the most rewarding feeling. All that work you put in you know finally it pays off."
While KJ was receiving his belt and enjoying his victory, the topic of him defending his belt again came up. It became apparent very quickly that Nick Diaz was ready to try and get the belt back from KJ when Diaz and his entire crew including his brother Nathan entered the cage. The next thing that we see as viewers is a free-for-all breaking out. KJ tells me, "I won my fight. I'm in there celebrating with my family and friends and before you even know it these guys are like in the ring and I guess they brought them in. I can understand how they want to pump up a fight. But he got in there (Nick Diaz) and I didn't see his fight before. They said do you think he deserves a rematch? They said no. I mean his fight wasn't that exciting. I guess. That's what I had heard. Afterwards, I still haven't even watched the fights so I've only seen my fight on like YouTube. You know I saw him get mad. This is what I'm telling you, is what I saw on the TV. You know, when I was in there, his brother was behind him. You can't see him on TV. He's flipping and cussing and having words with my dad and I see this and uh you know, I mean, it breaks out. You know what I mean? A scuffle or whatever and I think it's only natural. I mean for everybody, if they're going to throw fingers and talk a bunch of trash. You know, I think just everybody would want to retaliate. At the same time it was ridiculous. I mean, I didn't even get to celebrate, it was like 30 seconds. I mean jeez the whole card was done early. My fight was supposed to go, what, like 30 minutes and they got these guys in here 30 seconds after my win. It's just, whatever."
KJ also let me know what his plans for the future are, "I'm going to work on my gyms. Stay in shape and just go forward with my boxing career. That is really one of my goals. Just want to start building my career in that and keep on fighting."
KJ trains at cityboxing.com
Also visit KJ's webpage. The video of the fight is there in case you missed it: http://kjnoons.com/
http://www.elitexc.com/
Here are the audio clips from Penny Buffington's Interview with KJ Noons:
by Penny Buffington of MMA-Underground
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