By MILITARY PRESS on December 30, 2011 at 11:14 am
By Art Garcia
Christmas came early for San Diego resident KJ Noons as he won a tough, hard-nosed victory over Billy Evangelista in the opening bout of the Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal Lightweight Championship at the Valley View Casino Center on Dec. 17.
With the victory, Noons, the former EliteXC lightweight champion, hoped to re-establish himself as not only a contender for the Strikeforce championship, but for a possible shot down the road at, dare I say it, some of the top contenders in the UFC.
“What a war. We really put on a show,” Noons said following the win. “The key for me was diversity, not being so one-dimensional. (I) changed up my camp and made it a one-dimensional fighter better. I wanted to showcase something different.”
It was his diversity — the ability to land precise strikes and kicks that earned him a 29-28 unanimous decision which ended his two-fight skid and raised his record to 10-3. After two consecutive losses, Evangelista now sports a record of 11-2 (1NC).
After Evangelista won the first round 10-9, both fighters landed hard blows and some kicks in rounds two and three although neither fighter appeared in any real danger of being knocked out. However, Noons did ‘showcase’ more ability to mix things up by shooting for takedowns, landing some leg kicks and attempting a spinning back kick and back fist. Ironically, it was his versatility that probably kept the fight closer than had he just stuck more to his boxing skills.
As he became more comfortable, Noons’ superior striking skills became the difference in the fight. In fact, it seemed every time Evangelista would smile and shake his head ‘no’ when he was nailed with a solid combination of strikes or a well-placed kick, Noons’ confidence grew as he peppered Evangelista’s face with lefts and rights.
“I felt like I hurt him a couple of times but the guy’s tough and he just kept coming forward,” Noons said. “It feels good to win especially coming off a couple of losses. But I changed my camp up and had a new game plan this time because it’s all about winning.
“I had been going in (fights) lately and just wanting to put on a great show all of the time, but I have to win some. So it felt good to win.”
Evangelista said he knew he would lose if he didn’t knockout or submit Noons. After an aggressive start in round one, his mistake was trying to trade punches and land that over hand right rather than sticking to his wrestling skills and clinch attack which nearly garnered him a standing guillotine choke late in the final round. However, Noons gave up position to get out of it and jumped to his feet before Evangelista could take his back.
“I just had that feeling. It’s his crowd, his town. I just told myself have fun and fight the best fight you can fight,” Evangelista said following the fight. “At the end we agreed no takedowns and we would chuck it up and try to knock each other out. I wanted to get the crowd pumped up. It was a fun fight. We’re both strikers, both bangers.”
Ringside
After putting on an exciting opening bout in which both fighters often stood toe-to-toe trading punches, it was interesting to read the reviews of Noons vs. Evangalista. The consensus was neither fighter did much to impress the powers that be that they are worthy of a title shot in the near future.
Although they were coming off tough losses to Jorge Masvidal, the title challenger in the headliner fight, both fighters showed, at least in this writer’s opinion, that with some fine-tuning and hard work at certain aspects of their game, they could very well be mentioned among the top contenders for a shot at the title. Especially in Noons’ case – having split the two fights he’s had against Nick Diaz, if the rest of his skills can catch up to his striking ability there will be no question he’ll be a top contender for the title.
“I’ll just take whoever Strikeforce throws at me… I just want to get better as a fighter,” Noons said.
