A Closer Look At Strikeforce "Overeem vs. Werdum": KJ Noons vs. Jorge Masvidal

Welcome back fans and friends, it’s now time for another entry into “A Closer Look”. Today’s continuing series on the upcoming strikeforce “Overeem vs. Werdum” event looks to take a close look at all the scheduled Showtime fights for what should be a jam-packed card. Part 1 of the series is available here, and you can find part 2 here. Now it’s time for Part 3, and the first and only non-Heavyweight bout of this card. In a match-up that will have major championship implications, KJ Noons will be taking on Jorge Masvidal in a fight where the winner gets the next shot at the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship. Let’s get right to it.

KJ Noons is perhaps best known as the former Lightweight Champion of the short-lived Elite XC promotion. A relative newcomer to MMA at the time, Noons burst onto the major MMA scene when he defeated Nick Diaz in 2007 to win the aforementioned championship. The highly-contested end to the bout would spawn a fierce, bitter rivalry that lasted years.

Noons would follow up the win over Diaz with four straight additional wins, with two (T)KO stoppages. This would take us into October 2010, when Noons and Diaz would have their fateful rematch, this time at Welterweight. Over the course of five rounds, Diaz would go on to dominate Noons. Noons currently stands at 10-3 with eight wins by (T)KO.

His opponent, Jorge Masvidal, is an eight-year veteran of the sport that possesses a very respectable 21-6 record with eleven stoppages, ten of which occurred by (T)KO. A Strikeforce and Sengoku veteran, Masvidal’s most-memorable moment came when he found himself chocked unconscious due to an Inverted Triangle Choke courtesy of Toby Imada. The clip would spawn an internet viral video which has received millions of views, and turned the fledgling Bellator Fighting Championships promotion into an underground sensation.

Currently, Masvidal sits at 2-2 in his two most-recent fights. This includes his winning return to Strikeforce in a fight against Billy Evangelista that took place on March 5 of this year. Masvidal’s last loss was to Paul Daley at Welterweight, with “Semtex” showing up overweight. Masvidal has yet to finish an opponent since November 2009.

Judging on what I’ve said about him in the past, I’ve got no problem saying that I hope KJ Noons KTFO’s Jorge Masvidal. Whenever he gives an interview, Masvidal always strikes me as a man that feels entitled to the world. But the plain truth is that his recent record just doesn’t back that up. Meanwhile, KJ Noons looked pretty good against Diaz and had won six straight fights prior to that bout.

In the end, I think Jorge Masvidal’s time has passed. I can respect that he’s a veteran of the sport, but I think Masvidal is destined to be a journeyman even if he beats Noons. I certainly don’t see him beating Gilbert Melendez. Masvidal is still a relatively young man, he’s barely 26, but as I keep saying, “ring age” and your actual age can vary wildly when you have as many fights as some of these “young guys” have. Masvidal may not be thirty yet, but he’s had close to thirty fights. He’s experienced, but he also strikes me as very arrogant. Sooner or later someone is going to put him in his place (again), and if KJ Noons is going to be the one to do that… then I think I’m really going to like watching that happen.