HOUSTON, TX, June 15, 2011 – Set to do battle on the main card of this Saturday’s Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum event in Dallas, Texas, former EliteXC Lightweight Champion and current Strikeforce fighter K.J. Noons will be returning to the state where he has a long history of honing his fighting kills.
Raised in a fighting family (his dad Karl was professional kickboxer and a mean one at that), young K.J. began learning martial arts as a five year old, honing his fighting instinct by competing in kenpō karate tournaments in native Hawaii. Growing up in martial arts, it wasn’t until Noons moved the Houston suburb of Sugarland at the age of sixteen that he truly started developing into the elite fighter he is today. It was then that K.J. began training in San Shou / San Da under Coach Mike Altman at the old Houston Kicking Gym, where he trained alongside other fighters that should be familiar locally in Lee King and Kimo Rigmaiden, who still trains with K.J. to this day.
By the age of 17, K.J. won the ISKA Super Middleweight International Championship as an amateur in San Shou kickboxing and started branching out onto other styles to test himself as a martial artist and fighter. That path led him to test his training out through a new phenomenon called “no-hold-barred” (NHB), the early-day precursor to modern MMA. Fighting for Saul Soliz’ Renegades Extreme Fighting promotion, Noons caught the MMA bug and the rest is history.
From those early days fighting in Houston, KJ’s burgeoning MMA career grew as the sport of MMA did. Noons gained prominence winning the “best striker” award at PRIDE Fighting Championship auditions before moving on to EliteXC and beating Nick Diaz to win the promotion’s 160 title before moving on compete in DREAM and Strikeforce.
Now only 28-years-old and entering his fighting prime, K.J. Noons stands on the precipice of a Strikeforce title shot if he can get past former Floridian street brawler Jorge “Gamebred” Masdival this Saturday on the Showtime-televised main card of the Strikeforce: Dallas event.
Recognizing the love he gets from his adopted hometown of Houston, K.J. Noons was gracious enough to share a few precious fight-week minutes to discuss this Saturday’s fight and his H-Town roots with TXMMA.com.
What’s up K.J. how’s it going? Thanks for taking the fight week interview. How has training and everything been going for you leading up to this fight?
Everything is going great man. I’ve had probably one of the best camps I’ve ever had and now the last week is just fine tuning, weight-cut, resting my body, and getting ready for show time!
Although you’re originally from Hawaii, a lot of fans in Houston count you as one of our own from your time living here. Can you give us a quick summary of your history with the city of Houston?
I trained since I was a kid but I really picked up the training when I lived in Houston. I was training under Mike Altman (now-defunct Houston Kickboxing Gym), Saul Soliz, and a lot of the other local guys that are probably names now in the Houston scene. I trained with them before MMA got so big. I turned pro in Texas with boxing and won my first world title in MMA down in Corpus. I love fighting in Texas. Me and Texas go back a long way.
You know, it was really, really new back then… the whole MMA scene. When I was first started fighting, punching with closed-fists wasn’t even allowed yet so it was open-hand, no-gloves, and actually I didn’t even know what MMA was. Actually at the time, I didn’t even train in all the disciplines that make up MMA. I just did it for fun because I wanted to fight. It wasn’t even until later on down the road that NHB changed to MMA and the rest is history.
With you now being a Zuffa fighter, do you plan on continuing on with boxing at all, or is MMA now the one-and-only focus?
MMA is my sole focus but I’ll always love boxing. I love boxing but they (Zuffa) won’t let me box anymore. Even though, (boxing) will always remain a passion of mine and we’ll see if I can do that later in the future down the road once I accomplish some of my goals in MMA.
Moving forward to this weekend in Dallas, you’ll be fighting Jorge Masdival at Strikeforce. How do you match up with him?
I think he’s a good fighter. He’s well-rounded all around and not bad on the ground so I think it makes for an interesting fight. I feel like I match up very well against him.
I know your fight with Masdival was really bumped up to the main card as opposed to being the headlining fight on the HDNet undercard. How do you feel about that?
I think it’s great you know. I’m just happy to be the main card. I’ve fought a lot of times for Showtime and it’s always a good experience. I was supposed to be the main event on HDNet but it got moved up so that’s great.
It’s been reported that the winner of this fight will take on Gilbert Melendez next for the Strikeforce lightweight title. Would you like to speak on that at all?
I’m really excited. It’s a lot of my motivation behind wanting to win this fight. I feel like I have what it takes to be the champion and I’m ready for that opportunity once I earn it.
Cool, well we certainly wish you luck this coming weekend. Care to share any last words with all your fans in Texas and everywhere that are looking forward to seeing you?
Yeah, if you guys get a chance to catch my video series KJ Noons: Uncaged, please check it out. The third one is out today and the fourth one will be out I believe on Saturday so please watch. I encourage you guys to keep up with me on my website, on twitter @KJNoons, or through Facebook. Thanks to all my sponsors course.
I’m going to put on an exciting fight. I’m actually really looking forward to coming back and fighting in Texas so I hope you guys tune in!
TEXAS, Make sure to tune in to Showtime at 9PM Texas Time to Watch K.J. Noons Break’Em Off Real Bad Against Jorge Madival at Strikeforce: Dallas!
AUTHOR’S NOTE – We here at TXMMA.com are striving to uphold our commitment to being the most comprehensive resource for MMA and Grappling within the state of Texas. With your support and participation, we pledge to continue bringing YOU, our readers, the most up-to-date news and coverage of the state’s fighters and events. Please LIKE us on Facebook and participate through your comments and feedback. Thank you for letting TXMMA.com be a part of your lives!