Advertisement

Diaz and Noons meet in a grudge rematch

Nick Diaz is never boring when on the mic

SAN JOSE, Calif. – When Saturday night's Nick Diaz-K.J. Noons Strikeforce welterweight title fight was put together at the end of August, it had all the makings of one of the year's biggest grudge matches.

There was a first fight between the two nearly three years ago that Noons won and Diaz refused to acknowledge losing. Since then, there have been incidents between the two fighters.

Noons was the last fighter to beat Diaz, a match stopped after the first round when Diaz's left eye was swollen almost completely shut on November 10, 2007, in Corpus Christi, Tex., in a fight to determine Elite XC's first lightweight champion. The division was set at 160 pounds, which at the time was believed to be a weight class created by promoter Gary Shaw specifically for Diaz, whose bad-boy image make him one of MMA's more compelling characters.

"I was real upset that [the first fight] ended the way it did because it wasn't like I was hurt," said Diaz. "Then I kind of dropped the idea of ever fighting a rematch because he got out of MMA. I never considered the first fight as a loss. I just always looked at it as a fight that was stopped. I don't feel that this fight is about revenge. But I'm happy now that he took the fight."

While they trash talk on promotional videos for the fight, which airs on Showtime from the HP Pavilion, Diaz indicated that in his mind, whatever revenge he was looking for was achieved when Noons vacated his title in 2008 rather than sign to face him. Noons left the sport over a financial dispute, refusing to sign for the rematch because he was mad that he, as champion, was earning considerably less than Diaz.

"He vacated his title," said Diaz. "Embarrassing."

Because of their past – Diaz skipped a recent news teleconference with manager Cesar Gracie saying the fighter didn't want to be on the same phone call as Noons – the promotion attempted to keep the two apart in the days leading to the fight. They had to be together at the news conference on Thursday and Strikeforce even brought in extra security in case things got out of hand. But if this was a grudge match, neither fighter tipped their hand.

The first thing Noons said was how much he respected Diaz as a fighter.

Noons dismissed his comments that knocked the power of Diaz's punches. "That was just me having fun promoting the fight."

This came after a series of incidents between the two, including a crazy brawl a few months earlier that involved Diaz, his brother Nate Diaz, Noons, and his father Karl Noons Sr., a former kickboxer.

Noons, who had yet to vacate his Elite XC title, had just retained his title beating Yves Edwards in 48 seconds on June 14, 2008, at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, the same arena his father headlined in during the '70s. Diaz was brought into the cage as his next contender, and things got out of hand.

"Don't be scared, home," said Diaz, who looked far larger than Noons after having missed weight for a fight the same night by 8½ pounds.

Diaz flipped off Noons, whose father was nearby. Noons Sr. went after Diaz, and the corners of both men started throwing punches at each other in the cage. Noons Sr. had grabbed Diaz on the other side of the cage from where they started, while security and pro wrestler Bill Goldberg, working as an announcer on the broadcast, went to pull him off.

The Honolulu crowd was going berserk, with drinks flying into the cage. Security managed to get the Diaz brothers out of the cage, and in the aisle, they started flipping off both the crowd and the Noons family.

"Nick has no class," said Noons at the time. "He's a bum, a piece of [expletive] and he and his team disrespected my family and I with their gestures and trash talk and tried to upstage our fight."

Two days later, there was a second confrontation. At the time, Diaz he pulled up in front of a hotel and he saw the Noons family there.

"Right away, he put his mug on me," said Diaz at the time. "He was staring me down and trying to give the impression that he's hardcore. I flipped him off, but he's standing over there and I go, 'What the [expletive] are you doing?' I'm not the one doing [expletive]' I couldn't understand why this guy is putting his mug on me, but he had to act like he was some kind of tough guy in front of his girlfriend and his dad."

While both now downplay the grudge, it is the reason the fight is taking place. Diaz (22-7, 1 no contest) had trouble making 160. When Strikeforce purchased Elite XC's key contracts when that promotion went down and moved the lightweight division back to the standard 155, Diaz moved to welterweight. He became Strikeforce's first welterweight champion when he stopped Dream champion Marius Zaromskis on January 30 in Miami, and will be making his first title defense, having won seven fights in a row since their first meeting.

Noons, who trained in boxing and kickboxing since childhood, is 9-1 in MMA, 13-1 as a kickboxer and 11-2 and a pro boxer. He's getting the title shot due to the past history between the two, since he has yet to fight with the promotion as a welterweight.

Diaz comes in as a 5-to-2 favorite even though Noons dominated their first fight. But Diaz has looked impressive in fighting and beating a higher class of competition over the past three years.

In the fight, Noons showed superior boxing, connecting repeatedly to the body and following up with shots to the head while countering Diaz, who was moving forward. Diaz was getting stuffed when he attempted takedowns, and in the one round, Diaz was knocked down once and had dangerous cuts over both eyes. His left eye was swollen almost shut, and the doctor called off the fight after the first round ended.

Diaz, who was an easy bleeder early in his career, underwent facial surgery after the Noons fight to shave down bones in his face so he wouldn't cut open as easily. While he has been cut since that time, he hasn't had the kind of extensive problems with bleeding he had prior to the surgery.

The difference in weight likely works in his favor, as Noons is small for a welterweight. Noons said he feels stronger and healthier not having to cut weight. Diaz has improved greatly as a boxer over the past three years and feels his reach advantage and his punching output (he averages 182 punches thrown per fight, landing more in a shorter amount of time than almost anyone in the sport), combined with his stamina – he's a triathlete – will work in his favor.

Diaz had trouble getting Noons to the ground in their first fight, getting one takedown, and Noons was up from that immediately. But he believes in a five-round fight that it is inevitable Noons will be spending time on his back, where he'll have the decided edge as a Cesar Gracie black belt.

A crowd of about 8,000 is expected for the show, which includes a second title fight with Sarah Kaufman (12-0) defending her women's welterweight title against women's MMA pioneer Marloes Coenen (17-4), top lightweights Josh Thomson (17-3-1) against Gesias Cavalcante (17-3-1, 1 no contest) and two-time Division I All-American wrestler Tyron Woodley (6-0) against seven-time world jiu jitsu champion Andre Galvao (5-1).