Noons, Diaz post impressive wins in Hawaii

The UFC gets all of the credit for promoting future fights as ‘must see grudge matches’ but EliteXC, with a little cooperation from the fighters involved, did an equally impressive job setting up a forthcoming lightweight championship bout between KJ Noons and Nick Diaz.

Noons, whose career has experienced a 180 degree turnaround since a KO loss to the controversial and frequently incarcerated Charles “Krazy Horse Bennett�, has become arguably the 2nd most popular fighter in his native Hawaii behind UFC lightweight champ BJ Penn. He did nothing to disappoint his fans in this eponymously named event (Noon’s nickname is ‘King Karl’)as he overwhelmed highly respected veteran Yves Edwards in under a minute. Noons and Edwards exchanged strikes from the opening bell, but a hard straight right hand from the Hawaiian native sent his opponent staggering backwards never to recover. Noons quickly followed up with a combination that floored Edwards, gained full mount and rained down a barrage of punches before ref Mario Yamasaki stopped the contest.

An overjoyed crowd at Honolulu’s Blaisdell Center, who had responded to most of the other fights as if they were the opening act at a Slayer concert, screamed their appreciation and threatened to drown out the postfight interview. A mutual admiration society between Edwards and Noons ensued with both fighters offering classy commendations and words of respect for the other. The love fest ended abruptly, however, when EliteXC officials inexplicably brought the volatile Nick Diaz into the cage to presumably set up a rematch. Ironically, things quickly broke down and that may have done a better job setting up a return bout between Diaz and Noons than anything else they could have done. Bill Goldberg asked Noons about a rematch, who in turned asked the crowd if Diaz ‘deserved a rematch’. The crowd responded with a mixture of boos and shouts of “no�, which infuriated Diaz. He stepped to Noons, hurling expletives in the process, causing the lightweight champion to lunge at Diaz. A brief melee ensued, with Noons’ entourage including his father (a former professional kickboxer) threatening to get involved in the fracas. Security quickly separated the principals, and the show ended with Diaz and his brother Nate making obscene gestures to the crowd while being escorted out by security amid a cavalcade of boos.

Announcer Mauro Ranallo balefully and unconvincingly gave a lecture on professionalism and respect as the postfight scuffle ended, but clearly this is what EliteXC was hoping to provoke by booking Diaz on this event, let alone bringing him into the cage during Noons’ celebration. While its difficult to condone his reaction, Diaz had every right to be infuriated at the crowd’s response to a potential rematch. Earlier in the evening he put on an equally impressive performance against tough young contender Mushin Corbbrey. Unlike Noons’ quick victory, Diaz essentially dismantled his opponent for three rounds showcasing his incredible range of fighting talent. Corbbrey, like Diaz, has boxed professionally but early on it became apparent that the Californian’s skills were much more advanced as he scored repeatedly with jabs and combinations. After establishing his striking game, he mixed in a few takedown attempts and kicks which served to further disoriented Corbbrey. Corbbrey had shown some nice head movement and punch defense in the first round, but offered no offense of his own in return. By the third round it had become, as announcer Mauro Ranallo described it, a ‘spider versus the fly’ situation. Diaz, a Cesar Gracie Jiu Jitsu black belt, took Corbbrey down and mixed up submission attempts with hard punches and elbow strikes. The end came when Diaz faked a kimura attempt from side control, waited for Corbbrey to protect his arm, and then quickly transitioned into a top mount where he unleashed even more hard strikes until the ref stepped in.

The bad blood between Diaz and Koons goes back to their fight to determine the first EliteXC lightheavyweight champion. At the end of a highly competitive first round, the ringside doctor ruled that a Diaz cut was too bad to allow him to continue. Despite the fact that the cut didn’t appear to be significant, the ref had no choice but to award Noons the TKO victory and the championship. This prompted Diaz to offer a ‘middle finger salute’ to the doctor, the ref and the crowd as he left the arena. The incident furthered Diaz’ reputation as perhaps the sport’s biggest enigma—someone with an amazing skill set, incredible tenacity and toughness and a granite jaw who’s ability is frequently overshadowed by controversy. Diaz has the ability to become one of the sport’s ‘pound for pound’ best but has sabotaged his own career repeatedly with his bad choices and volatile temper. In this case, however, he gave EliteXC exactly what they wanted—a personal grudge to make an already compelling matchup all the more intriguing, not to mention marketable.

The remaining fights on the Showtime televised event featured three first round TKO victories. Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua made quick work of Australian tough guy Tony Bonello, heavyweight prospect Dave Herman took care of veteran Ron Waterman and in the opening bout Rafael Feijio defeated Wayne Cole as his cornerman—a pretty good fighter by the name of Anderson Silva—shouted instructions throughout. Also on the event, Scott Smith made an appearance to report that his eye injury sustained in the CBS Prime Time fight against Robbie Lawler was completely healed and that he was ready to fight. This paves the way for a Scott Smith/Robbie Lawler rematch for the EliteXC middleweight title on the promotion’s next CBS appearance scheduled for July 26. If the rematch is anywhere near as good as the original meeting it has the potential to be a ‘fight of the year’ candidate.