Filed under: Strikeforce, NewsDALLAS – Just like no fighter wants to admit to overlooking an upcoming opponent, no opponent wants to be overlooked. So when Jorge Masvidal heard that K.J. Noons already has his eye on a potential lightweight title shot, …
DALLAS – Just like no fighter wants to admit to overlooking an upcoming opponent, no opponent wants to be overlooked. So when Jorge Masvidal heard that K.J. Noons already has his eye on a potential lightweight title shot, the anger couldn’t help but simmer over just a bit.
“It’s good for me, because the only thing he’s going to be looking at is the doctor after this fight,” Masvidal said on Thursday. “He’s going to have a tube in his mouth, getting rushed to the hospital. I really don’t care.”
Of course, when it comes to the whole ‘of course I’m looking past him‘ remark, Noons insisted that he didn’t mean he wasn’t taking Masvidal seriously. Quite the contrary, he said.
“I’m not looking past him; I’m just looking at a goal. The ultimate goal is to be the best in the world, obviously, so if it’s that close it’s making me more motivated to train hard for this guy so I can get that title shot. But by no means am I looking past him. I think this is one of my toughest opponents ahead of me.”
In Noons, Masvidal sees a guy who likes to brawl more than he likes to box. And that, Masvidal said, just isn’t his style.
“I move, I hit. The drunk fans don’t want to see that, but that’s what I do. I move my head. I don’t get hit,” Masvidal said. “I’m not a sock-em, rock-em type of guy.”
He expects Noons to come in looking for a messy brawl, and even Noons admitted that Masvidal probably wasn’t far off in that assessment.
“I think he’s pretty right on. I consider myself a boxer-brawler. I can go out there and box if I want to, but…that’s not what I like to watch as a fan, and that’s how I like to fight is to get in there and mix it up and take risk,” said Noons. “If you take the risk, there’s higher reward. But with those risks you may have the risk of getting hit, getting knocked out, but that’s what makes for exciting fights.”
It’s also what makes for the kind of fights that Noons hopes will soon earn him a title shot. That is, if he gets past Masvidal, who seems far less concerned about a belt than he is about the task at hand on Saturday night.
“I want to punch his face in, and then we’ll get to whatever comes next,” said Masvidal.
He may not want to brawl, but those hardly sound like the words of a man in search of a safe decision.
We bring you our latest Betting Odds videos as our host, Steve Cofield from ESPN Radio and Cagewriter breaks down the top 3 main card events from the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix featuring Alistair Overeem.
We bring you our latest Betting Odds videos as our host, Steve Cofield from ESPN Radio and Cagewriter breaks down the top 3 main card events from the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix featuring Alistair Overeem vs. Fabricio Werdum with expert analysts, Damon Martin of MMA Weekly and Larry Pepe of Pro MMA Radio. Watch the videos below to place your best bets:
Alistair Overeem (-350) vs. Fabricio Werdum (+250)
DALLAS — MMA Fighting spoke to lightweight contender Jorge Masvidal about his upcoming fight against KJ Noons at Overeem vs. Werdum, his take on his recent Strikeforce win over Billy Evangelista, whether he will receive a title shot if he beats Noons and his thoughts on how the fight will play out.
DALLAS — MMA Fighting spoke to lightweight contender Jorge Masvidal about his upcoming fight against KJ Noons at Overeem vs. Werdum, his take on his recent Strikeforce win over Billy Evangelista, whether he will receive a title shot if he beats Noons and his thoughts on how the fight will play out.
It’s perhaps the most common refrain in sports: “I’m not looking past (insert opponent here).”
But KJ Noons has a slightly different take on the adage that nearly all title contenders wind up saying at one point or another. And it just might make sense.
Noons fights Masvidal on Saturday in what Strikeforce has deemed a No. 1 contenders fight for the lightweight belt held by Gilbert Melendez. It will be Noons’ first fight since a welterweight title fight loss to Nick Diaz last October.
Noons (10-3, 2-1 Strikeforce) and Masvidal (21-6, 3-0 Strikeforce) were slated for the preliminary card of Strikeforce’s show at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, which features the next two quarterfinal fights in the promotion’s heavyweight tournament on the main card. But when Gina Carano had to pull out of her return last week, Noons-Masvidal was bumped up for the Showtime audience instead of a prelim card that will air live on HDNet.
And Noons told Helwani he’s put in more work for this fight than he did for his title shot with Diaz, which saw him go up a weight class on relatively short notice.
“He’s definitely top notch, and I think he makes for an exciting fight,” Noons said. “This has been probably the hardest camp I’ve ever had to train for, this fight. This is actually harder than the Diaz fight. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, or we’re trying to get things more fine tuned.”
With a wedding to his longtime girlfriend looming in the fall, Noons said he would love to make quick work of Masvidal to get his shot at Melendez, then get right back in there with the champion.
“I heard there’s rumors Gilbert wants to fight in August,” Noons said. “I’ve never trained so hard. Once I get my hand raised, I would love to get one more fight before I tie the knot.”
With a layoff of more than eight months, Noons told MMA Fighting earlier this month in Las Vegas that he was itching to get back in the cage. Noons fought four times in 2010 going 3-1, but the Masvidal fight will be his first in 2011 – making this his longest layoff in four years.
And even though he said he’s willing to go back to 170 pounds if the right fight is there, saying he just wants to put on exciting fights, Noons believes 155 is where he’s supposed to be.
“This is definitely my weight class,” Noons told MMA Fighting in Las Vegas. “I was supposed to fight for a title at 155 before the Nick Diaz fight, but they asked me if I wanted to fight Nick Diaz in six weeks at 170. I said, ‘Yeah, I don’t care.’ I fought him in his hometown, on his turf, in his weight class. And you know the outcome. You can’t leave it to the judges, right?
“I’m just ready. It kind of sucks being on the sidelines – but it’s kind of fun, being on vacation. But I’ve still got to pay the bills and fight.”
Noons said the sting of his loss to Diaz will hopefully make him a better fight. Especially since it was to a heated rival whom he had beaten to win the EliteXC lightweight title in November 2007, when Diaz’s cuts were too bad to continue into the second round.
“It always hurts when you lose,” Noons said. “You put in all that time, all that effort with your team. It’s always tough to take a loss. But that’s what makes really good fighters – everybody wants to see somebody rise from the bottom back up top. If you can do that, that’s pretty good. I’ve gotta dust myself off and try to get better, win some more fights and try to get up there again.”
Noons’ loss to Diaz snapped a six-fight winning streak. Masvidal beat Billy Evangelista at Strikeforce’s March show in Columbus, Ohio, but has not won two straight since 2009.
Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum takes place Saturday in Dallas. The main card, featuring heavyweight tournament bouts between champion Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers, airs live on Showtime at 10 p.m. Eastern. The prelims air live on HDNet at 8 p.m. Eastern.
It’s perhaps the most common refrain in sports: “I’m not looking past (insert opponent here).”
But KJ Noons has a slightly different take on the adage that nearly all title contenders wind up saying at one point or another. And it just might make sense.
Noons fights Masvidal on Saturday in what Strikeforce has deemed a No. 1 contenders fight for the lightweight belt held by Gilbert Melendez. It will be Noons’ first fight since a welterweight title fight loss to Nick Diaz last October.
Noons (10-3, 2-1 Strikeforce) and Masvidal (21-6, 3-0 Strikeforce) were slated for the preliminary card of Strikeforce’s show at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, which features the next two quarterfinal fights in the promotion’s heavyweight tournament on the main card. But when Gina Carano had to pull out of her return last week, Noons-Masvidal was bumped up for the Showtime audience instead of a prelim card that will air live on HDNet.
And Noons told Helwani he’s put in more work for this fight than he did for his title shot with Diaz, which saw him go up a weight class on relatively short notice.
“He’s definitely top notch, and I think he makes for an exciting fight,” Noons said. “This has been probably the hardest camp I’ve ever had to train for, this fight. This is actually harder than the Diaz fight. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, or we’re trying to get things more fine tuned.”
With a wedding to his longtime girlfriend looming in the fall, Noons said he would love to make quick work of Masvidal to get his shot at Melendez, then get right back in there with the champion.
“I heard there’s rumors Gilbert wants to fight in August,” Noons said. “I’ve never trained so hard. Once I get my hand raised, I would love to get one more fight before I tie the knot.”
With a layoff of more than eight months, Noons told MMA Fighting earlier this month in Las Vegas that he was itching to get back in the cage. Noons fought four times in 2010 going 3-1, but the Masvidal fight will be his first in 2011 – making this his longest layoff in four years.
And even though he said he’s willing to go back to 170 pounds if the right fight is there, saying he just wants to put on exciting fights, Noons believes 155 is where he’s supposed to be.
“This is definitely my weight class,” Noons told MMA Fighting in Las Vegas. “I was supposed to fight for a title at 155 before the Nick Diaz fight, but they asked me if I wanted to fight Nick Diaz in six weeks at 170. I said, ‘Yeah, I don’t care.’ I fought him in his hometown, on his turf, in his weight class. And you know the outcome. You can’t leave it to the judges, right?
“I’m just ready. It kind of sucks being on the sidelines – but it’s kind of fun, being on vacation. But I’ve still got to pay the bills and fight.”
Noons said the sting of his loss to Diaz will hopefully make him a better fight. Especially since it was to a heated rival whom he had beaten to win the EliteXC lightweight title in November 2007, when Diaz’s cuts were too bad to continue into the second round.
“It always hurts when you lose,” Noons said. “You put in all that time, all that effort with your team. It’s always tough to take a loss. But that’s what makes really good fighters – everybody wants to see somebody rise from the bottom back up top. If you can do that, that’s pretty good. I’ve gotta dust myself off and try to get better, win some more fights and try to get up there again.”
Noons’ loss to Diaz snapped a six-fight winning streak. Masvidal beat Billy Evangelista at Strikeforce’s March show in Columbus, Ohio, but has not won two straight since 2009.
Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum takes place Saturday in Dallas. The main card, featuring heavyweight tournament bouts between champion Alistair Overeem and Fabricio Werdum, and Josh Barnett vs. Brett Rogers, airs live on Showtime at 10 p.m. Eastern. The prelims air live on HDNet at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Without further comment, Scott Coker announced in the Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum press conference today that Gina Carano was not medically cleared to participate in her scheduled June 18th bout and her fight against Sarah.
Without further comment, Scott Coker announced in the Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum press conference today that Gina Carano was not medically cleared to participate in her scheduled June 18th bout and her fight against Sarah D’Alelio would be replaced by KJ Noons vs. Masvidal. At the press conference today, Coker said he hadn’t spoken directly with Carano but that her representative released the statement:
“I’m seriously disappointed not to be fighting on June 18. I’d like to thank Greg Jackson and Team Jackson for such an amazing camp. I hope this is only a brief setback.”
A replacement for Carano has not been announced and no further information has been released regarding her medical condition. Thus, rumors are born and bred and one in particular is that Gina Carano is pregnant. We will have to wait for further announcements or maybe we can pay off a close friend of Carano’s to get the scoop. In the meantime, D’Alelio tweeted: “DAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMIT!!!”
Well, with a reaction like that, we don’t expect to see D’Alelio invited to the baby shower.
Chael Sonnen‘s indefinite suspension sticks; says he will retire. Jorge Masvidal vs. KJ Noons set for Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum Frankie Edgar pushing off surgery for bulging discs; opts for epidural injections for pain. Shinya.
DALLAS – Just like no fighter wants to admit to overlooking an upcoming opponent, no opponent wants to be overlooked. So when Jorge Masvidal heard that K.J. Noons already has his eye on a potential lightweight title shot, the anger couldn’t help but simmer over just a bit.
It’s perhaps the most common refrain in sports: “I’m not looking past (insert opponent here).”
