Tag: Nick Diaz

Filed under: Strikeforce

Three years after being bloodied and beaten in their first fight, Nick Diaz got his revenge against the last man to defeat him, KJ Noons, winning a unanimous decision and retaining his Strikeforce welterweight title on Saturday night.

Diaz was bloodied this time, too, but he was also the more effective fighter for 25 minutes of hard-charging action, weathering some hard punches from Noons and landing plenty of punches of his own. At the end of the fight, which was billed as a grudge match, Diaz and Noons exchanged a hug. They had earned each other’s respect.

“I beat this guy on the ground or standing up,” Diaz said afterward. “I’ll beat this guy in a boxing match but I’ll also tap him out on the ground. … I just want to display my skills to the world because I can do it all.”

Filed under: Strikeforce

The Strikeforce welterweight title fight pitting Nick Diaz against KJ Noons marks one of those rare instances when a fighter wins the first match convincingly, comes back for a rematch without losing any fights in between, and is still a decided underdog.

Noons, it seems, is fighting both Diaz and public perception, yet his first victory over Diaz in November 2007 shouldn’t be completely discounted. Many people seem eager to forget the specifics of the fight, instead focusing on the fact that Noons won by cut stoppage after one round. Through time, that result has been skewed as fluky or unjust, but that doesn’t erase the fact that Noons decidedly outgunned Diaz on their feet for the entire five minutes of action.