Nieky ‘The Natural’ Holzken won the four-man Welterweight Contender Tournament at GLORY 19 on February 6, booking himself a title shot against Canada’s ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini in the summer.
Like some other top Dutch kickboxers such as Robin van Roosmalen and Rico Verhoeven, Holzken has established a relationship with The Blackzilians team in Florida, probably due to the striking coach there being another Dutch kickboxer, Henri Hooft.
He stayed at The Blackzilians for two weeks prior to GLORY 19 as he got acclimatized to the difference in time difference between Europe and the US, and while there he and his main coach Sjef Weber got involved in some training and sparring with some of the guys.
Videos of his sparring with Michael McDonald have already been widely spread but in the latest installment of his ‘The Natural goes [to the] USA’ video series we also him working with Vitor Belfort and showing ‘The Phenom’ a few new striking tricks and combinations.
Holzken is one of the best kickboxers in the world and you can see Belfort is very, very interested in what he is being shown. The constant improvement Belfort has demonstrated in his striking game over the past year has been impressive in itself; will we see a few of Holzken’s tricks show up in Belfort’s next performance?
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