The following is an article posted on www.signonsandiego.com.
By Jerry Magee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Not guaranteed to happen:
K.J. Noons is boxing. He is stunned. Momentarily disoriented, he launches a kick at his opponent.
Noons is an all-purpose fighter, as adept at mixed martial arts as he is at boxing, in which he is 8-1 as a junior middleweight with six knockouts. His ambition is to become a world champion, either as a boxer or in MMA. Choose one. Or choose both.
For K.J. (for Karl James) to become a champion simultaneously in both boxing and MMA is within his capabilities, in the belief of Mark Dion, operator of the City Boxing gyms downtown and in Pacific Beach and the man who is handling Noons.
“He's like the Bo Jackson of the sport,” contended Dion. Jackson, of course, was a leading figure in both baseball and football. “Now we've got a boxing and an MMA star, one of the only ones going,” said Dion.
Others would seem to agree. According to Dion, Gary Shaw of Main Events has completed a three-year deal to promote Noons' boxing matches and Pro Elite has a contract to do three of his MMA appearances.
Boxing is where the money is in Noons' sports. “True,” he said, “but look at where I am in boxing. When can I be in the top 10 with a title shot? Not before 15 or 20 fights. I'm still in the building phase.”
For this reason, Noons, 24, considers claiming an MMA title more immediately attainable for him than a boxing championship. He is 4-1 in MMA. Whatever he does, Noons is going to be highly marketable. The native of Hawaii bears a resemblance to Tom Cruise, the actor, and he is an outgoing, positive young man.
“He's got a right to be cocky,” Dion said.
Noons was in Houston when he determined to make San Diego his base. “I've got all my stuff packed in a truck,” he said. “No job prospects, no nothing. I called my buddy Uriah Faber (an MMA lightweight champion) and I said, 'Hey, man, got a job?' ”
From Faber, Noons received Dion's telephone number.
“I called Mark,” Noons said. “I said, 'I can be a trainer, a sales person, whatever you need. I just need to make ends meet so I can be a fighter.' ”
Dion invited him to show up at the City Boxing gym downtown. “He says, 'How good are you?' ” Noons related. “I say, 'The best you've ever seen, hands down.' He didn't believe me; he sees a bunch of knuckleheads come in. He says, 'All right, jump in the ring.' ”
Noons was about to have a job audition in MMA.
“The first guy comes, I drop him. He's out,” Noons said. “The second guy comes in, I drop him. He's out. The third guy who comes in, Mark is on the side of the ring going, 'Go, K.J.!' So I kick that guy's butt and he says, 'All right, you're hired.' It's been all good from there.”
Maybe not all good. Noons broke his left thumb in his most recent MMA bout when he reached his rival with a left hook.
Noons said his father was a kick-boxing champion in Hawaii who introduced him to boxing when he was 6. In addition to boxing and MMA, he is schooled in kick boxing and in the Thai form of kick boxing that involves striking with the feet, elbows, knees and hands. “It's very brutal,” Noons said.
Dion said he became aware of what sort of prospect he had in Noons when he took him to Freddie Roach's gym in Hollywood and the place fell silent when Noons was sparring. Noons worked in Hollywood against such fighters as Peter Manfredo and Carlos Baldomir and did well, by Dion's account. Here, he spars regularly against Francisco “Panchito” Bojado, a super lightweight who is 17-2, with 11 KOs.
Bojado is to box Steve Forbes of Las Vegas (32-5, 9 KOs) on an all-star card being offered by Golden Boy Promotions at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sept. 15.
“People say they would pay money just to see us spar,” Noons said of his work with Bojado.
“MMA is an easy transition for me because I'm using body shots, I'm going up and down,” Noons said. “The other guy doesn't know what I'm doing because he's not a boxer. In MMA, they can take a person down with one punch, which is possible, but it's much more fun breaking him down mentally and physically.”
Noons said there is no likelihood that he could be shaken up while boxing and without being aware of it revert to MMA.
“I know how to turn it on and off,” he said. “Whenever I box, I don't throw a kick for six to eight weeks.”
