Diaz Loses in High Noons Shootout
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Nov. 10 -- A star was born, or at least
reborn, Saturday night on the Showtime-televised EliteXC
"Renegades" card at the American Bank Center.
While the card boasted names Nick Diaz (Pictures), KJ Noons (Pictures), Yves Edwards (Pictures), Jake Shields (Pictures) among others, it was clear that the crowd was really interested in seeing a fighter who had yet to fight in a professional mixed martial arts bout.
Internet fighting sensation Kimbo Slice faced his first sanctioned
test against Bo Cantrell
(Pictures) and there was a palpable
feeling in the crowd that they were witnessing something
special.
The main event was no less thrilling but had fans leaving upset with the outcome.
Noons, of San Diego, Calif., relied on some good punches to the body and stuffed an early attempt at a takedown from Diaz that set the tone for the fight.
"I felt him go ‘uhhhhh' and I think that really slowed him down," Noons said of the opening body shot.
Diaz employed his usual game by throwing accurate pitter-pat punches, while Noons swung for the fences.
Noons seemed to be fighting both at a different speed and with a sense of urgency. Anything Diaz might have connected with got answered by Noons -- faster and harder. Diaz, 24, shot in for a takedown and caught a knee in the process that opened up a cut under his right eye eyebrow.
A Noons right hand further closed up Diaz's bloody left eye and forced him on his back. Noons tried to finish the fight with some windmill shots from his standing position but Nick held on.
"I felt pretty wild," Noons said. "I was throwing some pretty hard crazy shots. I mean he had his hands down, so I wanted to take the chance you know. And it's MMA; the gloves are small: one hit and lights are out."
Back on their feet, Noons connected again, this time drawing blood from his slowing foe's mouth. Diaz has been his best in the past when he's a wounded animal, but he wouldn't get the chance after the ringside physician, Dr. Rob Williams, called the fight between the first and second round.
"The fighter couldn't see well enough to protect himself," Williams said. "In my professional opinion, he could not carry on."
Diaz (15-7) vehemently argued that he was fine and when the crowd heard the decision, cups of beer and trash made their way into the cage as the Stockton, Calif., fighter jumped the fence and walked out, his middle fingers raised in defiance.
"He landed some good shots [to cause the cuts]," Diaz said. "But he was such a small guy, I couldn't get a grip on him. He doesn't hit that hard. I knew I should have boxed him more.''
While it might not have been what the fans wanted, Noons (6-2) was fine with the way things ended and was unapologetic about the way in which he took the EliteXC lightweight championship belt.
"How many times did he drop on the ground?" the 24-year-old Noons said. "He was going to get finished. I mean, yeah, he was cut very bad but I wasn't tired. It was the first round and he was more tired than me because I was hitting him to the body."
Like it or not Kevin Ferguson (Pictures), aka Kimbo Slice, has captured some cache in the American household, evident by the roar his name elicited while his name was being crooned by Jimmy Lennon Jr.
The crowd was on their feet for Slice's walk to the ring. The street brawler was the personification of intimidation, looking downright evil when he stepped into the cage as he glared at Bo Cantrell (Pictures) with an angry stare.
Slice kept his eyes trained on Cantrell, a short-notice replacement for Mike Bourke, even peeking around Lennon Jr. to make sure he could see him. The Corpus Christi crowd, lathered up after hundreds of thousands of viewings of the Miami, Fla., based Slice's boatyard knockouts on YouTube, offered chants of "Kimbo" before the opening bell.
The bald-headed, heavily bearded, 230-pound heavyweight Slice, who employed the services of MMA legend Bas Rutten (Pictures) to help him prepare for the fight, did not disappoint. He avoided a spinning back fist and went right after Cantrell with an uppercut to the body followed by a grazing right elbow that had the 21-fight veteran down on the mat awfully quick.
"I wasn't sure what he was going to do," said the 33-year-old Slice, who didn't remember connecting with the elbow. "I came in with a the leg kick. You know I was just trying to wait to set him up, time him right."
Slice, 1-0, delivered more bombs while Cantrell tapped feverishly on the ground.
"I am not sure what happened but just before the fight I started feeling weird,'' said Cantrell, 10-11. "I just wasn't myself in there. I felt a shell of myself.''
In the center of the cage Slice, elated at his victory, was mobbed by Rutten and the rest of his team.
"I am happy for Kimbo, but he needs an opponent that is going to push him a little," Rutten said. "I think he can handle it, but I want to see how he does when he has to face some adversity and go a full round or two.
"Really, Kimbo got nothing out of this fight tonight -- except for a nice payday.''
Slice, who came to EliteXC after the cancellation of his scheduled October fight with Tank Abbott, shared Rutten's disappointment in the fight's brevity.
"When you train this hard and make sacrifices you really want to see what it was all for you know, what is was worth so I was just looking forward to a longer fight," Slice said. "I wasn't really nervous you know I just stayed focused. I was just prepared. Well prepared."
Welterweights Jake Shields (Pictures) and Mike Pyle (Pictures) met in a fight that had the makings of a close contest, but ended rather quickly.
"He's got pretty slick standup," Shields said of Pyle. "He's a hard guy to knock out. He's hard to hit. He can move really good, so the plan was to put him on his back and grind him out and either submit him or TKO him."
Not surprisingly, Pyle, 32, was aware of Shields' reputation as one of the best ground technicians in the sport, and took precautions not to engage with him there. As such, Shields felt Pyle's power when a takedown attempt by the 28-year-old San Franciscan was met with a knee.
Shields, 20-4-1, looked hurt momentarily, before diving in again at Pyle's legs.
"Honestly I barely felt it but it did give me a headache," Shields said afterwards.
With Randy Couture (Pictures) in his corner, Pyle (14-5-1) was reversed when Shields rolled to the top and eventually gained full mount. Not wanting to eat too many punches, Pyle rolled over, giving the Cesar Gracie (Pictures) student a chance to apply a rear-naked choke at 3:39 in the first round.
"I know Pyle's a really good fighter so having the back I wanted to making sure I ended it," said Shields, who mentioned how furious he was that Saturday's bout wasn't an EliteXC 170-pound championship fight. Pyle turned down the title opportunity, gambling that a win would set him up nicely for free agency.
Dr. Seth Kleinbeck (Pictures), a practicing physician, stepped into the ring to face Australian Kyle Noke at 185 pounds. In a seesaw two rounds, it struck as ironic when an elbow from the Australian Noke (14-3-1) opened a cut or "laceration" that caused the ringside doctor to call the fight in the middle period. Kleinbeck fell to 8-4.
Antonio Silva took on Jonathan Wiezorek (Pictures) in the heavyweight division. Wiezorek, 11-2, was coming off five straight wins since his last loss, but his initial approach was very telling on how this fight was going to go.
Wiezorek rushed in with his head down, trying to avoid striking with the big Brazilian. Silva (9-1) caught Wiezorek with some flurries that helped him take back-control on the ground. The American Top Team fighter pounded on his opponent's head until finally flattening the self-trained fighter out of Springfield, Ill., for a rear-naked choke at 3:12 of the first round.
"I don't believe in easy fights," said Silva. "I had an opportunity to watch him fight in K-1 dynamite and studied his fight with my team. We took him seriously and the outcome is what you saw."
Silva, fighting for the first time since having surgery to remove a benign tumor near his pituitary gland, looked sharp at 265 pounds, his lightest weight as a fighter, putting him in the heavyweight division for the first time.
Geoff Bumstead threw some blows against fellow Corpus Christi heavyweight until Robert Ruiz flipped over and was caught in a rear-naked choke at 1:30 of the first round.
Veteran lightweight Yves Edwards (Pictures) snapped his losing streak with a solid win over Nick Gonzales in a battle between two Texas bangers at 160 pounds. Edwards chose wisely to put his American Top Team training to use. After a nifty single-leg takedown, Edwards slipped in a rear-naked choke to finish of "The Ghost."
The middleweight fight between Jon Kirk and Matt Lucas was the only bout on the card to go the distance. Lucas took a unanimous decision after three rounds.
Brett Rogers maneuvered his way onto follow heavyweight Ralph Kelly, battering him with strikes until the tapout came at 1:43 of round one.
The non-televised events got started off by Korean fighter and Spirit MC veteran Jae Suk Lim against last-minute replacement Daniel Pinedo at 170 pounds. Lim overpowered his opponent Pinedo onto his back and choked him out with a rear-naked at 2:42 in the first round. Lim looked good in his American debut.
While the card boasted names Nick Diaz (Pictures), KJ Noons (Pictures), Yves Edwards (Pictures), Jake Shields (Pictures) among others, it was clear that the crowd was really interested in seeing a fighter who had yet to fight in a professional mixed martial arts bout.
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The main event was no less thrilling but had fans leaving upset with the outcome.
Nick Diaz (Pictures) entered the cage for the first
EliteXC 160-pound title fight with his patented scowl in full
effect. His opposite, KJ Noons, chose not to be baited into a stare
down and refused to allow Diaz to dictate things once the fight
started.
Noons, of San Diego, Calif., relied on some good punches to the body and stuffed an early attempt at a takedown from Diaz that set the tone for the fight.
"I felt him go ‘uhhhhh' and I think that really slowed him down," Noons said of the opening body shot.
Diaz employed his usual game by throwing accurate pitter-pat punches, while Noons swung for the fences.
Noons seemed to be fighting both at a different speed and with a sense of urgency. Anything Diaz might have connected with got answered by Noons -- faster and harder. Diaz, 24, shot in for a takedown and caught a knee in the process that opened up a cut under his right eye eyebrow.
A Noons right hand further closed up Diaz's bloody left eye and forced him on his back. Noons tried to finish the fight with some windmill shots from his standing position but Nick held on.
"I felt pretty wild," Noons said. "I was throwing some pretty hard crazy shots. I mean he had his hands down, so I wanted to take the chance you know. And it's MMA; the gloves are small: one hit and lights are out."
Back on their feet, Noons connected again, this time drawing blood from his slowing foe's mouth. Diaz has been his best in the past when he's a wounded animal, but he wouldn't get the chance after the ringside physician, Dr. Rob Williams, called the fight between the first and second round.
"The fighter couldn't see well enough to protect himself," Williams said. "In my professional opinion, he could not carry on."
Diaz (15-7) vehemently argued that he was fine and when the crowd heard the decision, cups of beer and trash made their way into the cage as the Stockton, Calif., fighter jumped the fence and walked out, his middle fingers raised in defiance.
"He landed some good shots [to cause the cuts]," Diaz said. "But he was such a small guy, I couldn't get a grip on him. He doesn't hit that hard. I knew I should have boxed him more.''
While it might not have been what the fans wanted, Noons (6-2) was fine with the way things ended and was unapologetic about the way in which he took the EliteXC lightweight championship belt.
"How many times did he drop on the ground?" the 24-year-old Noons said. "He was going to get finished. I mean, yeah, he was cut very bad but I wasn't tired. It was the first round and he was more tired than me because I was hitting him to the body."
Like it or not Kevin Ferguson (Pictures), aka Kimbo Slice, has captured some cache in the American household, evident by the roar his name elicited while his name was being crooned by Jimmy Lennon Jr.
The crowd was on their feet for Slice's walk to the ring. The street brawler was the personification of intimidation, looking downright evil when he stepped into the cage as he glared at Bo Cantrell (Pictures) with an angry stare.
Slice kept his eyes trained on Cantrell, a short-notice replacement for Mike Bourke, even peeking around Lennon Jr. to make sure he could see him. The Corpus Christi crowd, lathered up after hundreds of thousands of viewings of the Miami, Fla., based Slice's boatyard knockouts on YouTube, offered chants of "Kimbo" before the opening bell.
The bald-headed, heavily bearded, 230-pound heavyweight Slice, who employed the services of MMA legend Bas Rutten (Pictures) to help him prepare for the fight, did not disappoint. He avoided a spinning back fist and went right after Cantrell with an uppercut to the body followed by a grazing right elbow that had the 21-fight veteran down on the mat awfully quick.
"I wasn't sure what he was going to do," said the 33-year-old Slice, who didn't remember connecting with the elbow. "I came in with a the leg kick. You know I was just trying to wait to set him up, time him right."
Slice, 1-0, delivered more bombs while Cantrell tapped feverishly on the ground.
"I am not sure what happened but just before the fight I started feeling weird,'' said Cantrell, 10-11. "I just wasn't myself in there. I felt a shell of myself.''
In the center of the cage Slice, elated at his victory, was mobbed by Rutten and the rest of his team.
"I am happy for Kimbo, but he needs an opponent that is going to push him a little," Rutten said. "I think he can handle it, but I want to see how he does when he has to face some adversity and go a full round or two.
"Really, Kimbo got nothing out of this fight tonight -- except for a nice payday.''
Slice, who came to EliteXC after the cancellation of his scheduled October fight with Tank Abbott, shared Rutten's disappointment in the fight's brevity.
"When you train this hard and make sacrifices you really want to see what it was all for you know, what is was worth so I was just looking forward to a longer fight," Slice said. "I wasn't really nervous you know I just stayed focused. I was just prepared. Well prepared."
Welterweights Jake Shields (Pictures) and Mike Pyle (Pictures) met in a fight that had the makings of a close contest, but ended rather quickly.
"He's got pretty slick standup," Shields said of Pyle. "He's a hard guy to knock out. He's hard to hit. He can move really good, so the plan was to put him on his back and grind him out and either submit him or TKO him."
Not surprisingly, Pyle, 32, was aware of Shields' reputation as one of the best ground technicians in the sport, and took precautions not to engage with him there. As such, Shields felt Pyle's power when a takedown attempt by the 28-year-old San Franciscan was met with a knee.
Shields, 20-4-1, looked hurt momentarily, before diving in again at Pyle's legs.
"Honestly I barely felt it but it did give me a headache," Shields said afterwards.
With Randy Couture (Pictures) in his corner, Pyle (14-5-1) was reversed when Shields rolled to the top and eventually gained full mount. Not wanting to eat too many punches, Pyle rolled over, giving the Cesar Gracie (Pictures) student a chance to apply a rear-naked choke at 3:39 in the first round.
"I know Pyle's a really good fighter so having the back I wanted to making sure I ended it," said Shields, who mentioned how furious he was that Saturday's bout wasn't an EliteXC 170-pound championship fight. Pyle turned down the title opportunity, gambling that a win would set him up nicely for free agency.
Dr. Seth Kleinbeck (Pictures), a practicing physician, stepped into the ring to face Australian Kyle Noke at 185 pounds. In a seesaw two rounds, it struck as ironic when an elbow from the Australian Noke (14-3-1) opened a cut or "laceration" that caused the ringside doctor to call the fight in the middle period. Kleinbeck fell to 8-4.
Antonio Silva took on Jonathan Wiezorek (Pictures) in the heavyweight division. Wiezorek, 11-2, was coming off five straight wins since his last loss, but his initial approach was very telling on how this fight was going to go.
Wiezorek rushed in with his head down, trying to avoid striking with the big Brazilian. Silva (9-1) caught Wiezorek with some flurries that helped him take back-control on the ground. The American Top Team fighter pounded on his opponent's head until finally flattening the self-trained fighter out of Springfield, Ill., for a rear-naked choke at 3:12 of the first round.
"I don't believe in easy fights," said Silva. "I had an opportunity to watch him fight in K-1 dynamite and studied his fight with my team. We took him seriously and the outcome is what you saw."
Silva, fighting for the first time since having surgery to remove a benign tumor near his pituitary gland, looked sharp at 265 pounds, his lightest weight as a fighter, putting him in the heavyweight division for the first time.
Geoff Bumstead threw some blows against fellow Corpus Christi heavyweight until Robert Ruiz flipped over and was caught in a rear-naked choke at 1:30 of the first round.
Veteran lightweight Yves Edwards (Pictures) snapped his losing streak with a solid win over Nick Gonzales in a battle between two Texas bangers at 160 pounds. Edwards chose wisely to put his American Top Team training to use. After a nifty single-leg takedown, Edwards slipped in a rear-naked choke to finish of "The Ghost."
The middleweight fight between Jon Kirk and Matt Lucas was the only bout on the card to go the distance. Lucas took a unanimous decision after three rounds.
Brett Rogers maneuvered his way onto follow heavyweight Ralph Kelly, battering him with strikes until the tapout came at 1:43 of round one.
The non-televised events got started off by Korean fighter and Spirit MC veteran Jae Suk Lim against last-minute replacement Daniel Pinedo at 170 pounds. Lim overpowered his opponent Pinedo onto his back and choked him out with a rear-naked at 2:42 in the first round. Lim looked good in his American debut.
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