THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
MMA News
:
Strikeforce
STRIKEFORCE QUOTABLES: K.J. Noons says the "trash talking, pot smoking chump" Nick Diaz is going to have to kill him to beat him on October 9
"I'm super excited about the opportunity, and I think it's a great thing for me. To be in the Strikeforce main event on Showtime, to be in line to be a two-time, two-division world champion, and getting to beat Nick again in the process... I couldn't ask for a better fight. I already got one up on Nick. I beat the crap out of the guy. He's had a good run, and there's a lot of build-up for this rematch. We've both improved, this is a different weight class now, he's gotten better, I've gotten better, it's a different situation. But at the end of the day, I'm a true mixed martial artist, I have respect for the sport, and I am a good role model... Nick's good for entertainment, but I come from a family of fighters. I started early, and I have respect for martial arts. It teaches you discipline, how to become a good person, and I feel that I am. On October 9, I'm fighting a guy that, if I had a kid, I wouldn't want him looking up to. He's a trash-talking, pot-smoking chump. It's motivation for sure [to be fighting near Diaz's hometown]. I love being the underdog. Even when I'm not, I still try to picture myself as the underdog so I train harder and push myself. Nick says he's bringing his guys, but so am I. They're going to need to beef up security. This is beyond a grudge match. I'm going to light him up like a Christmas tree. He's going to have to kill me to [to beat me]. It's very personal."
-K.J. Noons talks to Strikeforce.com about his October rematch with Nick Diaz for Diaz's Welterweight Championship.
Penick's Analysis: Strikeforce needs to find a way to make this back type of back and forth between Noons and Diaz - because rest assured this will get a response from Diaz - out to as wide of an audience as possible. They have an easy sell with this fight, but they need to do it right; which is something they haven't shown an ability to do thus far. As for Noons himself, he did bust Diaz up in the first fight, but Diaz has improved quite a bit since that one. This should be a good fight card on October 9 for Strikeforce, they just need to make sure people are watching.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...
PART OF THE USA TODAY UFC GROUP