EliteXC lightweight champion KJ Noons, who is currently involved in an ongoing feud with EliteXC and more specifically Vice President Jared Shaw for declining to accept a rematch with Nick Diaz on Oct. 4, has officially released his rebuttal stating his side of the story.

It seems I may have jumped the gun with Noons believing that he simply didn’t want to rematch Diaz for fear of losing his belt. I would like to publicly apologize to KJ for any negative remarks I might have made in any previous post before hearing his side of the story.

In the statement, Noons makes some powerful claims regarding the company citing numerous indiscretions as the reason for him and his camp refusing to take the fight with Nick.

Some of the wrongdoings Noons alleges include special treatment for certain fighters, lack of promotion, the embarrassment of his family during the in-ring dispute with Diaz, being under paid ($83,000 in two years), threats of a lawsuit and a breach of his confidentiality agreement.

The champ claims that Diaz is not the problem. He places the blame solely on his mistreatment over the past two years at the hands of ProElite CEO Chuck Champion and VP Jared Shaw. He also says that the Diaz fight will happen, just not with EliteXC on October 4th.

Noons also claims that the recent feud with EliteXC is the final straw and that he will now be focusing on his boxing career instead. KJ says that he can make a lot more boxing every other month than he can being the champ at EliteXC where he claims to make $300 a week.

Here is KJ’s formal statement (unedited).

K.J. NOONS STATEMENT — AUG. 28 2008

It is not about being scared to fight Diaz, who I previously defeated, it is about the fight I am currently in with Elite XC regarding my career.

I would first like to address all the false allegations and insults from Jared Shaw, aka $kala, VP of Elite XC. You will see why I am so disgusted of how Elite XC treated me and how it applies to this proposed fight and my career.

$kala says:

Honor my contract. Elite XC wants to talk about honoring the contract. How about when Elite XC honored the contract and my pay to fight Edson Berto went down after I lost my first fight. That was not part of my contract. Or how about the contract Gary Shaw breached by not promoting my boxing career? Gary Shaw only gave me one out of four of the agreed upon fights. I have not boxed for over a year. When I signed with Elite XC, I was promised they would promote both my boxing and MMA careers. I could have signed with another MMA only company, but I wanted to box too.

Elite XC does me a favor after I lose, by putting me on the first ShoXC against Edson Berto? Berto’s father is good friends with Jared’s father, Gary Shaw who wants Berto’s brother on a boxing contract. Berto was the next guy Elite XC wanted to build. But I win that fight and now I am 1-1. Elite XC gives me an opportunity to fight Diaz. Elite XC puts me against Diaz because Elite XC’s roster was so light and there was nobody else to fight him.

Elite XC creates a new weight class for Diaz because he beat Gomi. Giving Diaz a belt and creating a weight division (160) he can make, will make your belt legit. Sorry to ruin Elite XC’s plans and beat him.

Elite XC never promoted or took care of me as their champion.

Examples:

In the Elite XC’s DVD where Diaz and I fought there are two (2) baseball cards of Diaz and Kimbo. Hello! I won the fight and Elite XC’s promoting Diaz after I beat him? Or how about the day Elite XC flew Diaz in to do a signing on the DVD where he lost. Wow, that must have been uncomfortable Nick? Signing a DVD, and it is a fight that you lost. Why wasn’t I flown in for the signing?

Elite XC has never promoted me on either of their websites, EliteXC or Pro-Elite.

Elite XC offered me a fight on the first CBS show, but only if I signed a new long-term contract. Instead of promoting their best fighters on CBS, you have to be on a long term contract for them to promote you. That was not our deal.

Consider when Elite XC gives a couple thousand tickets away at their CBS show in Stockton. Elite XC gives me a hard time about comping me one extra ticket for my cousin that helped me train for my fight. I only get four tickets per show. I am the main event in Honolulu, my home town! I did not ask for any tickets for my family and friends and they gave me a hard time about one extra ticket!

Or how about when Elite XC brought Diaz into the ring after my last victory in Hawaii to disrespect me and my family.

Chuck Champion (President Elite XC) threatens me, my family and my manager with lawsuits and how he’s going to sue me. HAHA. Pretty hard to sue a guy who does not make jack with your company. I’m glad $kala disclosed how much I make, which breached the confidentiality clause of the contract. I will break down the real numbers for you. I am the defending world champ, I have been the main event for Elite XC three out of four times on Showtime. In almost two years I have made approximately $83,000?

After paying my trainers and managers fee, I have $50,000 thousand. After taxes, probably 30 grand. Divide that by two years for $15,000 thousand a year. Divide by 52 weeks that amounts to approximately $300 a week. I do not know anybody that can survive on that amount of money. My buddies make more money than that in a couple days being a bus boy or bar back. And yes you can argue I should fight more. Elite XC doesn’t give me fights or promote me, they ice me. Gary Shaw Productions only gave me one of the agreed upon four fights per the boxing contract.

And I do not want to ramble on about all the little small stuff that I can keep going on about. But the straw that broke the camel’s back is they want me to fight Diaz for the second time. Diaz is not the number one contender and they are paying Diaz three times more money than me. Diaz complained after the Stockton fight, he was not paid enough. How do you think that made me feel? Yes you can argue that Diaz gets more for the draw, therefore I do not deserve as much compensation. If that is the case, it is a result of Elite XC terrible job promoting me. Instead of promoting me as their champ and upcoming athlete, Elite XC has resented me for ruining their plans to make Diaz their champ. That is just total disrespect. So it comes down to money and what is fair. I am tired of being bent over by Elite XC with no Vaseline.

I am right when I say Diaz is not the number one contender. Elite XC is trying to force this fight for their ratings. Eddie Alaverez is the number one contender and anybody with half a brain knows that a fight with Eddie is a way harder fight for me than Diaz. I will fight Diaz, but Elite has to be fair. I’m not ducking Diaz, why the hell would I be scared of someone I already beat.

With that being said, I am going to focus on my boxing career. I can make more money doing 6 and 8 rounders every other month and make more than I did being the Elite XC defending world champ. At least I will be able to sleep at night and be able to look myself in the mirror everyday. That right there is worth more than $300 bucks a week or fighting a guy I cannot stand for less money than him the second time around.

Will the Diaz fight happen, yes. Will the fight happen on Elite XC on October 4, 2008, probably not. The way things are being run by Chuck Champion, a guy whose history is newspapers, not fighting, and $kala, someone who talks a lot of game, but has never put on a pair of gloves, never stepped in a ring or cage. $kala has had everything handed to him with a silver spoon from daddy. Does anyone else but me think $kala just wants to be famous and stir up all this dirty laundry? I guess any publicity is good publicity. When I think about it, it has been good promotion for their October card since nobody is talking about it until you bring up the Noons vs. Diaz match up.

Before I end, I would like to thank my team, my trainers and workout partners for helping me prepare for my fights hours every day. I would like to also thank my manager Mark Dion for standing behind my decision making. I want to be a fighter who is not doing whatever I am being told like some kind of mindless puppet.

Thanks for hearing my side.

K.J. NOONS

Well the verdict is pretty much in and it looks like the much anticipated rematch between KJ Noons and Nick Diaz for the EliteXC lightweight belt on Oct. 4 is not going to happen.

It appears that we will not get to see "The Artist" paint his second proverbial masterpiece after all. On Inside MMA, Noons made it clear that he had no qualms with cutting up Nick’s face again in a rematch. It appears now that Noons was only making an attempt at "trash talking" and in fact had no desire to risk losing his belt to the former UFC vet from the beginning.

As we reported yesterday, Noons was given a 24-hour deadline to sign the bout agreement required to fight Diaz at EliteXC’s third "Primetime" event.

According to MMAJunkie.com, KJ’s manager Mark Dion scoffed at the deadline, claiming that Nick Diaz is not the number one contender in the lightweight division.

The deadline extended to Noons’ camp will end at 8pm ET tonight but apparently it won’t matter. Dion addressed the deadline with MMA Junkie.

"The update on [the deadline] is nothing is going to happen with it," Dion said. "That’s what’s going to happen with that. I don’t care about how many threats [Shaw] wants to pull. We’ll be doing a press conference if EliteXC doesn’t see the light here pretty soon and if Shaw doesn’t stop talking [expletive]."

Dion went on to say that Noons only wants to fight the best EliteXC can offer. So who is qualified to fight the "mighty" KJ Noons? Apparently Eddie Alvarez is worthy of entering the cage with the "master". Alvarez ironically is not available at this time because he is taking personal time off.

While most fighters wouldn’t be satisfied with winning a title due to a cut, Noons is apparently at peace with the victory. In a way you can’t blame him. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to step into the ring with an even more motivated and angrier Nick Diaz. You can be sure that things wouldn’t go as smoothly the second time around.

To sum things up, Dion had a message for anyone anticipating the 5pm PT deadline:

"Forget 5 o’clock," Dion said. "I ain’t waiting until 5 o’clock. If [EliteXC officials] are holding their breath, then someone’s going to pass out."

The bottom line is this: A true champion will fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. It appears that KJ Noons is not the true champion we thought he was.