Image via GLORY

GLORY World Series returns to our screens tomorrow and we are blessed with the chance to watch one of the finest strikers anywhere on the planet—Nieky Holzken. At thirty-one years old, Holzken is already a veteran of over a hundred kickboxing and Muay Thai bouts, and holds an 8-0 record in GLORY. On Friday he fights for the vacant GLORY welterweight title against old foe, Raymond Daniels.

Daniels is almost the polar opposite of Holzken. He spent almost all of his career competing without a ring and without the pressure of low kicks, having on taken part in nine bouts under GLORY rules or similar. Consequently, he is far more adept in the quick in-out movement and side on stance of old school American kickboxing. And credit to Daniels, he has managed to keep up competing in this style in addition to training as a professional kickboxer:

In Daniels, GLORY seems to have found a potential superstar—largely because so much of his game is built around side kicks, back kicks, and jumping kicks. His two-touch side kick to jumping back kick knockout has to be one of the most celebrated clips in kickboxing history. The problem is that against the best of the best, his lack of experience has really shown.

The two men to defeat Daniels so far in his 'true' kickboxing career have been Joseph Valtellini and Nieky Holzken. They would also be considered, by most, to be the best fighters in that division—so no shame there. In fact, were Daniels put on an infinite plane with either of these two men, and were cardio not an object, he'd make them look daft all day. Not only does he excel with the stopping side kick and the counter back kick...



Daniels' point sparring counter back kick, ten years ago.



Daniels' liver-pounding counter back kick into wheel kick today.

...Daniels has spent his entire life working on 'flashing pads' drills whereby he runs in and past with the 1-2. These same running punches, which look so bizarre in the big gloves, are still his go to in the kickboxing ring, and he surprises everyone by still escaping behind experienced kickboxers.

The problem is that kickboxing bouts are not fought in an infinite, empty space. The ring is as much a character in the narrative of the fight as both of the athletes. The man who can manipulate the space and dictate where the fight takes place is the man who is really in control. Raymond Daniels is a whirling dervish of speed and style, but he is not in control. His own attempts at intercepting back kicks often send him careening into the ropes, and then he is forced to sprint off of them.

Against middling kickboxers that will cut it, and Daniels' timing and speed mean that when he does connect, it hurts, so he doesn't often go the distance. The problem is that against the cream of the crop, he's been walked down, put on the ropes, and beaten senseless. Joseph Valtellini didn't look incredible doing it, in fact he sat on the end of Daniels' strikes and just stepped in and punted Daniels' back leg each time Daniels was done attempting to strike.

Daniels' back leg seemed to succumb to the pounding and finally he found himself trapped against the ropes, where Bazooka Joe put him down and out with the power punches.

But Holzken, he was much more subtle. The Natural was the perfect foil to Daniels' distance striking game. There was no hurry, but he didn't tarry either. It was constant, methodical, motion towards the ropes. Every step the two fighters made, Holzken took a little bit more of the space away. Daniels ran from corner to corner, trying to prevent himself from getting trapped and unable to focus on his usual counter kicking antics. That's the secret of pressure. The threat of punches forces the opponent to move in ways he shouldn't when no punches are being thrown. It's all in his head.

Holzken would corner Daniels, melt him with beautiful combination punching, and then start over when Daniels got back to his feet. It was beautiful to watch and it highlighted the difference between technical ability and tactical know how. Daniels can time kicks which Nieky Holzken would have to practice for months to get off against a resisting opponent, but Nieky Holzken has the ringcraft to make all of that count for nought.

It is made worse by Daniels' tendency to cover up along the ropes or to fire back wildly. His hands aren't crisp at the best of times, but when a fighter is against the ropes, with his stance being squashed and thus his power being limited, trading punches is a pretty terrible idea. But against some of the worse kickboxers that Daniels has faced, it's actually worked.



“Uh-oh, he's punching back! Better let him out of the corner...”

Raymond Daniels' style of fighting—side on, darting in and out—is just not well suited to kickboxing in the ring against competent ring cutters. He uses the side kick to maintain distance, but that's a labor intensive way to keep opponents off of your exposed lead leg. What's more, rather than fighting in combinations and set ups, he tends to fight in sprinting pairs of strikes. Overall his style is just exhausting which feeds into his difficulty in staying off of the ropes.



Pumping out one of these every time you want to keep someone away from you is hard work.

Now, of course, there is nothing to say Daniels can't make adaptations and learn to stay off the ropes with more success. There's zero to stop him learning the flaws in his ringcraft and sparring rounds specifically working on his weaknesses. But his most recent performance, against Justin Baesman, yet another mixed martial arts fighter making his debut in professional kickboxing, Daniels just showed his usual stuff.

Currently Daniels is ranked at number three in the division in GLORY, but honestly the fighters he's beaten have just not been terribly good. If he never bumped into the upper echelon of the division and just continued to knock out sub-par opposition with beautiful intercepting back kicks, he'd be the superstar GLORY needs. Unfortunately, because GLORY want to do the right thing, and match him against the best, he has a hell of a learning curve to contend with.

Tune in tomorrow for GLORY 23, because I haven't seen a bad GLORY card yet.

Pick up Jack's new kindle book, Finding the Art, or find him at his blog, Fights Gone By.

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