The Fight World at a Glance …
September 21, 2008 at 8:28 pm by Jason Hatcher in Latest Headlines, Video
EliteXC Champ KJ Noons Stripped of His Title
KJ Noons was stripped of his EliteXC lightweight title on September 19. The announcement came on Friday by EliteXC’s Head of Fight Operations, Jeremy Lappen.
According to Lappen, Noons was stripped of his title for refusing to defend the belt against Nick Diaz. Noons and Diaz have a history of bad blood that resulted in a post fight riot after a recent Noons victory when Bill Goldberg invited Diaz into the cage for a future fight challenge. In many minds, Noons was simply taking the high road and possibly even a small bit of revenge in refusing Diaz a shot.
Noons was offered a headline fight for his title defense against Diaz on the upcoming October 4 CBS show that also features EliteXC darlings, Kimbo Slice and Gina Carrano. Jeremy Lappen went on to reveal that Noons was given a second chance for the defense against Diaz on Showtime but continued his stance of refusal.
The EliteXC brass has commented that the move by Noons is extremely bad for his career but kept the door open by saying he still had two fights to honor on his contract and there was still enthusiasm for Noons to fight again on a future EliteXC card. Lappen had no official fight announcement for the now vacant lightweight title.
Below is video footage of the incident between KJ Noons and Nick Diaz that was widely suspected to be choreographed controversy on the part of former EliteXC president, Gary Shaw. Following a victory in his home town, Noons was challenged and insulted by Nick Diaz after Bill Goldberg invited both Nick and his brother Nate (UFC fighter) into the cage. What followed was a lowbrow spectacle more fitting of WWE or possibly even the Jerry Springer Show. Many people in the wake of this unfortunate incident criticized EliteXC for exploiting a vulnerable situation considering the bad blood between the two fighters. A large percentage of fans sided with KJ Noons during the post fight incident as well as presently during his championship dethroning.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
Another ridiculous incident from EliteXC, it is so unfortunate that they are still up and running.
September 21st, 2008 at 11:05 pm
With the combination of Kimbo and this pre-planned drama, I just refuse to watch any fight put on by EliteXC. It’s such a kick in the balls for MMA.
September 25th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING NICK DIAZ’S FIGHTS AND TO SAY THIS WAS FAKED FOR T.V BELITTLES HIS INTEGRITY.DIAZ DESERVES ANOTHER SHOT AT THE TITLE AND TO DENY HIM WAS SIMPLY NOONS BEING A COWARD.HE DOES NOT NEED THE SUPPORT OF THE HAWAIIAN COMMUNITY,HE HAS THAT HERE IN THE GOOD OL’ USA!
September 25th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
@michelle:
No, Michelle, I did not suggest the post fight incident between Noons and Diaz was “faked” for television. What I meant was Gary Shaw has a history of placing fighters face to face who have bad blood in the promotional hopes that something controversial will occur. And it did that night as well as the night Shaw encouraged Brett Rogers to approach the microphone during the Kimbo Slice post fight conference and call Kimbo garbage. A riot broke out that night too. On one hand, Shaw deserves a tip of the hat for being a masterful promoter but its simply too much like professional wrestling and hurts the sport of MMA in the long run. It’s just cheap, lowbrow marketing.