Photo via Glory

Glory 19 was headlined by heavyweight veterans, Ricco Verhoeven and Errol Zimmerman, but that fight devolved into a sloppy, playground-like scrap and ended with a self inflicted injury to Zimmerman. The real action of the night was in the four man welterweight tournament and the meeting between finalists, Nieky Holzken and Raymond Daniels.

Raymond Daniels carried a good deal of hype into his opening bout with Jonatan Oliveira, largely due to his spectacular jumping back kick knockout in his last Glory appearance. It's worth noting that much of what is considered Daniels' best work came in the World Combat League, from 2007-2008, where he went undefeated at 17-0 and saw off competitors like Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson and Chidi Njoukani. Hopes were high that Daniels could recapture that form in pure kickboxing.

Against Oliveira, it was classic Daniels. The long, side on stances. The use of the side kick to wind the opponent on the approach, and the spinning kicks at every opportunity. As Oliveira chased Daniels across the ring, he ate these kicks and was planted on his rear numerous times.

The lead leg sid ekick which Daniels uses to prevent the opponent closing in on him at range.

Through use of the side kick, the back kick, the wheel kick, and a nice springing left knee (a la Lyoto Machida), Daniels took Oliveira apart with ease. On one return to action following a knockdown, Daniels even attempted that classical textbook filler, the fly-by jumping side kick. Rather than jumping into the kick, one jumps up, past the opponent and attempts to land a side kick to the temple.



Notice the classic juke move.

After a few knockdowns, the fight was called and Daniels was into the tournament final.

Immediately following this match, Nieky Holzken met the Russian, Alexander Stetsurenko in the other semi-final. While the Stetsurenko's pace was admirable, it was Holzken landing the cleaner shots, bringing the slicker set ups, and scoring the punishing counters. What is particularly enjoyable to watch in Holzken is the Dutchman's use of tempo. He will throw some half speed punches out, then land a crisp one. The sort of stuff Guillermo Rigondeux does in his boxing.

The combination work of Holzken is absolutely beautiful, better than you would expect even from a stand out Dutch kickboxer. There were so many neat techniques being used throughout the bout (including a couple of Valeri kicks from both men, the whipping, roundhouse axe kick which I still contend should find much greater popularity in future) that I can't cover it all here by a long shot.

Notice in the instance below—just one of many, many beautiful combinations from Holzken—how 'The Natural' feints his lead push kick (neb, teep, hidari maegeri-kekomi, whatever floats your boat), comes in with a one-two, and immediately closes the door on the counter by sweeping the lead leg as it moves towards him in preparation for a retaliation.



The sort of stuff Buakaw used to use to stifle a young Holzken and deny him combination-fighting opportunities.

And the combination work continued. One of Holzken's best set ups is the right uppercut into the left hook to the liver. A combination that I love. Landing uppercuts in kickboxing is difficult because the fighters are more upright than in boxing, but the uppercut can be used to raise the head. Most fighters think of this in terms of “lift his head with the uppercut, take it off with the left hook”, but forcing the opponent to raise their head will often leave their midriff stretched out and open.

The above sequence captures the kind of work that Holzken was doing routinely. Uppercut into a lead hook to the body—a perfect set up—into a cross hand trap (left hand rips down opponent's left hand as you throw the right hand), into a wheel kick with the heel targeting the floating rib. It doesn't get much better than that.

In fact, in the main event, Errol Zimmerman managed to injure his own right knee attempting the same kick and had to retire from the bout.

Holzken took the decision, and Daniels versus Holzken was set for the final. It was the fight everyone expected and it seemd as though we were in for fireworks. But the bout demonstrated a point that I've spoken about before, though not at much length. Traditional style karate (rather than Kyokushin and its off-shoots, which are much more closely related to kickboxing) / Taekwondo—side on stance, lots of movement—doesn't work half as well in the ring as it does in the cage or on a big, open mat.

There are two things which cause havoc against the long-stance distance game. One is low kicks, the other is corners. Corners kill karate and TKD. Against Nieky Holzken, Raymond Daniels seemed to spend just moments out in the centre of the ring, before running himself into one corner or another. The same thing would be much easier to avoid in the cage—Chuck Liddell, Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva were allowed retreat and circle forever with little risk of getting caught on the fence in most bouts because of the very slight corners in an eight sided cage.



Circle, circle... corner.

A distance game and a side on stance are beautiful things, but when a fighter gets pushed to the ropes (as we will be talking about in episodes 1 & 2 of How to Enjoy a Fight) his stance is forced to become more square. If you fight the majority of your bouts from a side on stance and don't know how to protect yourself when you're squared up along the ropes, you have a glaring weakness.

Daniels wasn't helped by his passion for spinning kicks. Each failed back kick would see Daniels rebound off of Holzken and into a corner. Holzken patiently pursued and went to work with his body work. Daniels was out of his comfort zone—a long range in the centre of the ring—and into Holzken's very quickly, and on the floor shortly after.



A right straight to the solar plexus and a left hook behind the elbow put Daniels down for the first time.

It's always pleasing to see more fighters using the right straight to the body. Artur Kyshenko had great success with it in K-1 Max, and Badr Hari built numerous fight ending combinations off of it. In fact, Hari hit his last opponent so hard with a body straight that he tried to escape through the ropes.

The next knockdown came in a similar way, Daniels sprinting from one corner to another, trying to find space to side kick and back kick, and Holzken pursuing him to the corner, squaring him up, and flooring him with combination work.



Always good to see the rapid 1-2,1-2 in full effect. Good boxers like to pitter-patter a double 1-2 up top and then throw in a hard hook to the body, another application of tempo change.

When I write that corners kill karate, it's not to say that karate / TKD styles are ineffectual. They are tremendously effective within their range, it is that the practitioners of them so often lack a back up plan once things get past their preferred range. Daniels didn't attempt to tie up once, he didn't duck in and try to turn Holzken onto the corner, he just covered up against a ferocious combination striker.

Against Oliveira it had been enough to show Oliveira punches, and the Brazilian stepped back to let Daniels back into the middle of the ring.

But with his back to the ropes, Raymond Daniels' bark is so much worse than his bite. Letting him out of the corner because he's thrown a couple of hard punches is like subduing a knife wielding maniac and saying “okay, I'm going to let you up, but you have to promise there will be no more stabbing...” Daniels is so, so dangerous at range, but just so-so in close. Holzken recognized this and dispatched the terrific kicker without much difficulty.

It was a great return for Glory, and while the heavyweight main event and the Army versus Navy bout were not very impressive, they were just to get the punters in. The choice to have Andy Ristie—possibly the finest knockout artist in the organization—on the undercard was also a little weird, but any Ristie is good Ristie. The important point is that the welterweight tournament was a brilliant watch, and has me salivating at the prospect of a "Bazooka" Joe Valtellini—Nieky Holzken rematch for the Glory welterweight strap.

Check out these related stories:

Glory Returns: The Techniques of Verhoeven, Zimmerman, Schilling, and Thomas

Jack Slack's Glory Breakdown: Is Artem Levin the Best Fighter on Earth?

Glory 17: Things I Learned From My First Kickboxing Event