411 MMA Interviews: K.J. Noons
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 06.15.2010
K.J. Noons returns to the US MMA scene this Wednesday at Strikeforce: Los Angeles! Noons talks about his upcoming fight with Conor Heun, fighting in the US, his preferred style of fighting, and much more in this exclusive interview.
MMA fighter, K.J. Noons, returns to fight in the US for the first time two years in a MMA match. Noons (8-1, MMA) will be facing off against fellow lightweight, Conor Heun (8-3, MMA), on June 16 at Strikeforce: Los Angeles. Noons original opponent, Charles "Krazy Horse" Bennett, had to drop out for undisclosed reasons. Bennett remains Noons sole career loss in MMA. Noons recently made a successful return to the MMA world last March at DREAM 13, defeating Andre Amade. Last week, Noons taking a break in-between training sessions granted 411mania an exclusive interview to talk about his upcoming fight and his future plans for MMA:
*Fun Trivia Fact: K.J. Noons and yours truly are both graduates of Clements High School.*
Jeffrey Harris: Your fight was changed up at the last second. You're now facing Connor Heun instead of Charles Bennett. How do you feel about your new opponent?
KJ Noons: I'm feeling great. I trained really hard for Krazy Horse. I really wanted to avenge that loss. But unfortunately for whatever he couldn't make it or fight, so now I believe I've got a better opponent, Connor Heun, for the LA show. A guy coming in shape, he's well rounded and he's a big 155 pounder so it makes for an exciting fight.
Jeffrey Harris: Are you disappointed you aren't facing Krazy Horse considering that was your one career MMA loss?
KJ Noons: Yeah, you know I was disappointed but that's just how the fight game goes. A lot of times opponents change; you got to just go with it. There's nothing you can really do about it. People drop out or if there are injuries or for whatever reason, it happens a lot in the fight game. So I'm disappointed, but you just do it, so . . .
Jeffrey Harris: You were previously the 160 pound champion for Elite XC. You never lost that title. You spent a bit of time away from MMA and you've recently come back. How did it feel to come back and defeat Andre Amade at DREAM 13 earlier this year?
KJ Noons: It felt great, that time off and fighting in Japan that was really exciting for me. I really enjoyed it. I always wanted to fight overseas over there. I didn't really . . . I was into boxing so it wasn't like I was nervous or anything. It was just fun to get back into MMA. I love both sports.
Jeffrey Harris: You're in a very stacked division right now in Strikeforce. There are a lot of great 155 pound fighters in Strikeforce with guys like Gilbert Melendez who is definitely a top 5 lightweight, Lyle "Fancy Pants" Beerbohm, and Josh Thomson. There are a lot of great fighters in this divison. How do you feel to be in this mix?
KJ Noons: You know the lightweight division has always been super tough. There are a lot of great athletes and I think there are a lot of great fights for me in that division. I feel like I'm right at the top of that division.
Jeffrey Harris: Is Gilbert Melendez on your radar at all?
KJ Noons: I would love that. I would love to add one title -- a couple more titles to the collection. Whatever, whoever Strikeforce wants me to fight, that's who I'm going to fight. If they want me to fight Gilbert, then sure, I would love to have a title. And I think there's a lot of exciting fights out there, you know? I think whoever I fight, it doesn't really matter if it's Gilbert Melendez or Connor Heun, and it's going to be an exciting. And I feel like that's one of the differences between me and a lot of other fighters.
Jeffrey Harris: Nick Diaz is currently the welterweight champion of Strikeforce. Is it ever in your head at all if Nick Diaz challenged you to face him again at welterweight or a catchweight maybe? Or do you feel you've already proven everything against Diaz by beating him previously in a title fight?
KJ Noons: No, that's a fight Strikeforce is interested in. That's a fight I'm interested in. I would have no problem going up in weight.
Jeffrey Harris: Now that you are back on the MMA scene, are there any techniques you are focusing on in training? Your standup is really excellent and fighters are so well-rounded and use a lot more wrestling and grappling to neutralize the standup of a lot of fighters.
KJ Noons: Yeah, I'm just trying to work on my wrestling a lot because I feel like a lot of these fighters . . . work the system, take people down and just lay on them and wait for the round in the bag. So I try to work that wrestling so I can make it exciting for the fans. These guys, they want to win so bad, they'll just take people down, just hold them down, and just do barely enough you know like GSP or something. Nobody wants to watch that. They're the best, don't get me wrong. He's [GSP] good at what he does. But people want to watch people fight in MMA.
Jeffrey Harris: So is the key to defending and neutralizing guys that will try to blanket and do the LnP thing on you?
KJ Noons: Of course, they don't want to get hit in the face. I'm a better fighter than most of them, so they want to lay down. That's their game-plan, lay down and just do enough to stay on top. I'm aware of that, so that's I'm really trying to work on my game, so I can defend that or keep it standing or whatever, just keep it exciting. People don't like it when you go to the ground you know, switch, or getting into position. Anything exciting, I'm a fan of fighting too, so I like to watch fights. I don't like to watch boring fights, do you?
Jeffrey Harris: No, I don't.
KJ Noons: Yeah, I'm just like any other casual fan. I just want a good fight. So when I fight, I want to put on a good fight also. I'm not saying that wrestling is bad. I do wrestling to be better. I'm not saying jiu-jitsu is bad, I do jiu-jitsu to be better. But when you do it, you have to like do stuff with it. You have to like get better positions, go for the submissions, or really putting some ground and pound, not just try to stay on top and wear a guy down and put rounds in the bag. That's just boring.
Jeffrey Harris: Where are you training out of right now? And who are your main sparring partners?
KJ Noons: I'm just training right now in Southern California area. I've been training at the Arena and Throwdown and a gym Rafael Alahara MMA . . . so I'm really just bouncing around, gym to gym, and getting the best sparring partners from there. I've been going with Joe Duarte and Joe Brammer, Jeremy Stephens, just whoever . . . there's so many good fighters here, the list just goes really on. Toby Imada, I mean I can just keep naming people, you know.
Jeffrey Harris: What did you think of your fight with Amade, and it being your first MMA fight in almost two years?
KJ Noons: I think he's a very dangerous opponent and I had a broken foot during the fight so I couldn't kick or necessarily do any takedowns so I feel like I was pretty limited. I really pushed the pace and I really tried for an exciting fight. I exposed myself a lot to try to make it an exciting. It takes two people to dance or tango or whatever. It just didn't come out the fight I wanted. I got the win. I wish it was more exciting but it was like my first fight back. The guy is dangerous and good. I feel like I outclassed a really good fighter.
Jeffrey Harris: Since you are also a professional boxer and doing the pro boxing fights, does the boxing give you any perspective on the MMA game as well?
KJ Noons: Oh yeah, it just makes me better. It's as if I want to go jump into wrestling matches or jiu-jitsu matches like a lot of MMA guys do. It just gets me better in that aspect of the game. I enjoy it. It keeps me busy, and I have a true passion for boxing.
Jeffrey Harris: Are there any sponsors or people you would like to thank or give a shout out to?
KJ Noons: I'd like to thank all the people that support me, and all the people that helped me out with this fight. And check out KJNoons.com and come June 16 on Showtime, I'm very excited and I'm very exhausted right now from training. And I'm going to put on a great fight for everybody.
Jeffrey Harris: Thank you so much for your time. Good luck and I'm really excited to be seeing you fight in the US again.
KJ Noons: Excellent man.
Strikeforce: Los Angeles will be broadcast live on Showtime on June 16. Yours truly will be live in attendance at the NOKIA Theatre. Remember to bookmark 411mania.com in order to get the live and quickest play-by-play coverage of the event. Also remember to:
