KJ Noons vs Billy Evangelista

By Dr. Octagon, J.D.

Battle of two guys who just lost to Jorge Masvidal.  Weird to see UFC ads in a Strikeforce cage. Round-by-round scoring after the jump:

Round 1-Noons with some leg kicks; he shoots and gets the takedown. Evangelista pops up and pushes Noons against the fence. Evangelista is working the knees. Billy picks up KJ, but Noons pops up. The fighters clinch again. Evangelista is looking for the takedown, but Noons defends nicely. Noons scores with the knee when Evangelista comes in for a takedown. Billy scores with a hook. Evangelista with some nice work against the cage to end the round.

Round 2-Both fighters land big shots. Noons lands a spin kick and hook combo. Noons is bleeding from a nose cut. Evangelista landed a left. KJ lands a front kick to the face. Evangelista is laughing at Noons now and swinging wildly. Noons lands a straight right and Evangelista shakes it off.

Noons shoots, which doesn’t seem to be a good idea. Noons looks like he just missed an uppercut. Evangelista lands another right hook. Noons shoots again and gets hit with some knees. Billy still smiling and chasing Noons around the cage. Billy shoots again but is unsuccessful. Noons throws a massive uppercut that misses and gets shoved against the fence again for his trouble. Noons shoots again and is stuffed. He’s wasting a lot of energy with these shitty takedown attempts as the round ends.

Close round, but I’ll give it to Noons for landing the better shots 10-9. I bet Evangelista won that one on the judges’ cards for ring control.

Round 3-Noons eats a left from Evangelista. Noons lands the big uppercut. Noons with another big left. KJ lands a nice right head kick. Noons with another big uppercut. Evangelista has a tough chin on him. He’s taking a lot of shots.

Billy lands a nice bodyshot and is chasing Noons around the ring again. Noons shoots and Billy gets him in a nice standing guillotine, but Noons gets out of it. Both fighters are totally gassed and reduced to throwing slow punches. Noons lands a nasty left hook. Billy lands a clean right elbow.

10-9 Noons. Great fight in the last weight class the UFC has yet to clean out. Cards could be close, but it’s clear who won the fight from the look of Evangelista’s face.

All three judges have it 29-28 for KJ Noons. Good fight for Karl James.