Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken (87-11, 46 KO’s) is already back in the gym and getting ready to defend the World Welterweight Championship he won at GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS earlier this month.
Holzken, 31, stopped Raymond ‘Real Deal’ Daniels (27-3, 17 KO’s) in the third round of their rematch to win the belt and stamp his authority as the division’s top fighter. Now he is looking forward to making his first defense of the belt when the next challenger emerges.
“I hope [my first challenger] will be a winner from a Contender Tournament, same as what I had to do, otherwise it’s not fair I think,” he says. “[This week] I will be back in the gym and picking up my training again. I don’t have any injuries so I feel very good.”
Murthel Groenhart had hoped to be the first challenger had he made a statement in his fight with Chad Sugden on the Superfight Series card. Instead he lost a split-decision on what was supposed to be his triumphant return to the welterweight division.
Holzken and Groenhart have a little animosity between them since a 2010 decision went Holzken‘s way. They often cross paths backstage at fight events but do not greet or acknowledge each other. Both had things to say about the other prior to GLORY 23 but having come away from the event with different results, Holzken for now sees Groenhart in his rear-view mirror.
“Yeah I don’t pay so much attention to Murthel,” he says, with a deliberate air of disinterest. “I thought it was a boring fight [he had with Chad Sugden].”
Holzken stopped Daniels with a knee which opened a huge cut over Daniels’ left eye late in the third round. Daniels was ahead on the scorecards at that point, having won the first two rounds, but Holzken says his low output in the first half of the fight was deliberate. He let Daniels burn some gas and worked him with leg kicks whenever he could.
“I feel good, I did what I had to do, started slowly and then in the third round I noticed he had pain in his front leg. I hit him a couple of times in the body and I saw in his face that the spirit went out of him. His hands came down and I saw the opening for a knee so I jumped [with it] and hit him,” he recalls.
“He was cut badly. He was yelling at me, I can’t see Nieky, I don’t see anything. So I stopped [hitting him] and the referee came in [and looked] and yeah, it was a big cut.”
Since the fight there has been a lot of talk about Daniels’ performance. A large number of fans did not expect him to last long in the rematch and were very surprised at how he brought the fight to Holzken, although Holzken himself is dismissive of the Los Angeles karate fighter’s efforts.
“I didn’t get hit once very badly. He made some spin kicks and didn’t touch anything. Made some jumping knees, didn’t touch anything,” he shrugs. “So I think I trained good for Daniels… My plan? My plan was to knock him out and win the title. My title.”
COMING UP NEXT: Two GLORY World Championships are on the line Saturday, September 19 at ‘Dynamite’, a ground-breaking hybrid MMA and kickboxing event featuring the best of Bellator MMA and GLORY Kickboxing talent live on Spike TV.
