Nieky Holzken (84-11, 44 KO’s) is having a hard time deciding who he wants to win this weekend’s welterweight title clash between champion Marc de Bonte (87-11-1, 28 KO’s) and Canadian challenger ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini (11-2, 10 KO’s) at GLORY LAST MAN STANDING.
“I hope that Valtellini wins it, because I like him as a person, but I really, really hope that De Bonte wins because we have some business to settle,” he says.
“He has said some things, that I have been avoiding him. That is not true. But I am not somebody who talks a lot, I will talk to him with my hands. We will see each other in the ring.”
The comments Holzken is referring to came after GLORY 16 DENVER. De Bonte had just won the world welterweight title, the crowning achievement of eighteen years spent training in the martial arts, yet the first question he was asked was about Holzken.
Holzken is ranked #1 but has been sidelined due the lingering effects of a shoulder injury sustained in a car accident six months ago, which is why he wasn’t fighting for the title in Denver that night.
De Bonte replied by telling reporters that he has been trying to arrange a fight with Holzken for several years but that it has never happened due to problems from Holzken’s side.
“Holzken isn’t the absolute #1. He hasn’t fought me yet. He’s actually declined to fight me a couple of times, even before GLORY. Maybe it’s not Holzken, it might be his management,” he says.
“I have beat a lot of opponents that he has beaten, I deliberately challenged them all so that I got in position to challenge him. But the fight never happened and so I don’t think he can be called the real #1 right now, until he fights me.”
Holzken recollects things differently.
“Some years ago I had a title and we looked for an opponent. The organization picked Karapet Karapetyan but De Bonte and his management wanted the fight. But the organization said that he wasn’t in line for a title fight at that moment,” he says.
“So that was the issue, not me avoiding him, not what he is saying with his big mouth. I would fight anybody in the world, so what is he talking about?
“Is he the Terminator? Is he the strongest man on earth? I don’t know what his problem is but I don’t like that kind of thing. I don’t like people who talk trash about other people. I just don’t like when people talk like that.
“But it is his life, he can do what he wants. We will just talk in the ring. Nobody has ever talked about me like that, ever.”
Holzken is now back in training and ready to return to action. “I am #1 in the rankings and to be honest I feel like I am the champion anyway,” he says. “So I am happy to fight whoever wins in Los Angeles.
“And once I have the belt… well, I cannot predict the future, but I am training hard and I am planning to keep it for a very long time.”
