Holzken won that fight and was due to then take a title shot against Toronto, Canada’s ‘Bazooka’ Joe Valtellini, but the Canadian has been forced to take a hiatus from competition while he deals with a concussion issue. He has vacated the belt while he does so, making it available for Holzken and Daniels to contest.
At GLORY 19 VIRGINIA earlier this year both Holzken and Daniels had tough semi-final fights before they met each other in the final. This time they will both be fresh going into a five-round clash which will see one of them walk away with the welterweight belt and the right to call himself the best striker on the planet at 170lbs/77kgs.
Today, Monday, GLORY has released a behind-the-scenes look at Holzken’s preparations, with a second such video on Daniels to follow soon. Today’s video was produced by Eldar Gross, the man behind ‘The Reem’ and ‘King of the Ring’ documentary series’ which followed Alistair Overeem and Tyrone Spong respectively.
In the summer, Holzken and family traditionally spend a month camping in the countryside near his home city. This summer sees them camped out as usual, though Holzken has to drive to the gym every day to get his training sessions in.
Those training sessions are intense – Holzken is very bitter about his place in the welterweight division and uses that to fuel his performances. At GLORY 13 TOKYO he won the welterweight tournament, stopping Valtellini in the final, but was then sidelined by a shoulder injury and was forced to sit and watch as first Marc de Bonte and then Valtellini became champion.
Having won the GLORY 19 welterweight tournament he was set to rematch Valtellini but now feels he has had that match stolen from him. Having stopped Daniels at GLORY 19 he doesn’t feel he should be getting a rematch so soon, which is why in this video he says Daniels is getting the title fight “for free” from GLORY and that he is “lucky”.
In this video we see Holzken training, spending time with his wife and children, talking us through the Mercedes-Benz he bought with his GLORY 13 winnings and sending a message to Daniels ahead of their showdown.
GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS takes place Friday, August 7 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and airs live in the USA on Spike TV from 11pm ET.
Also on the card is a heavyweight co-main event clash between Xavier ‘X-Man’ Vigney of California, a sometime training partner of Nick Diaz’s, and Daniel ‘The Warrior’ Sam of London, who trains and fights out of Mike’s Gym, Amsterdam alongside top names such as Badr Hari.
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