December's GLORY 26 Amsterdam fight between bitter rivals Nieky Holzken and Murthel Groenhart was preceded by a lot of back and forth between the two, leading to a heated encounter. Holzken. Now with Saturday's opponent Yoann Kongolo also firing some shots, Holzken wants to clear something up.

"No it's OK [for my opponents to talk] I hope they do that. I hope they gonna talk about me a lot. I like to fight guys who talk s—t about me so then I can beat them," he snaps during a phone call with Bloody Elbow.

"They can say what they want, I don't care. I am the #1 and if they want to beat me then they have to try to knock me out. Show some balls, don't try and steal the rounds with light points [scoring] and running backwards.

"That's my advice to my opponents in the future - if you want to beat the #1, try to knock him out. But when you try that, you will get knocked out. And when you try to run backwards and try to make points with light shots, judges in GLORY fights won't take that."

That last line is a reference to the debate which ensued in the wake of his decision win over Groenhart in Amsterdam. A sizable number of fans felt the nod should have gone to Groenhart; they cited statistics which showed Groenhart out-landing Holzken in total strikes over the course of the fight. However, those same statistics also showed Holzken out-landing Groenhart in "power strikes".

"Murthel's fanbase say he got the win but I know I was the guy who did the damage. Look at the last two rounds, his leg was broken. They had to carry him back to the locker-room. I saw it, I walked behind them," says Holzken.

"When the bell ended the fight he came over and he was like 'man I respect you so much this and that, it's all hype. I said OK, let's bury it and be normal with each other and when we see each other we can get a drink. Then two days later he does an interview and again he talks bad about me! Saying he is the real champion and that I am afraid of him – what is that?!

"Don't be an internet warrior, a media warrior. Be a warrior in the ring, be a warrior in the ring. Not on the microphone, not in the media. That's not going to make you #1. You have to beat me, and beat me 100%, not with light points... ...and now let's get back to Kongolo, because Murthel is back in the queue now, he's not near me. Let's talk about Kongolo and Cedric Doumbé, they are the guys now."

Doumbé is the French welterweight who upset Groenhart in a surprise win at GLORY 28 PARIS last month. In doing so he nixed a rematch between Groenhart and Holzken for GLORY 31 AMSTERDAM, penciled in for June. He also used his post-fight speech to call Holzken out. Cameras then panned to Holzken; he chose to taunt his rival on live television: "Back of the line Murthel, back of the line!" he hooted.

"I enjoyed that a lot," beams Holzken as he recalls the incident. "Murthel is a guy who talks a lot. Before the fight he was telling Cedric not to be a five-minute gangster, whatever that is, and he's going to do this and that, then he loses the fight! And then afterwards he was talking about being injured. Maybe he is injured, I don't know, but it's better to keep that to yourself, swallow the hard pill [of the loss] and come back.

"And yeah Doumbé called me out but he did it in a nice way. Fighters can call me out like that. Of course they want to fight me, they all want my spot, they all want to be number one and I understand that, I respect that. He didn't talk about how he wants to kill me, rip my head off, all this bulls—t. He did it like a gentleman," says Holzken.

Kongolo, on the other hand, has indeed been saying he wants to "kill Holzken" and "take his head off" in their fight this coming Saturday. It headlines GLORY 29 Copenhagen and pits two of the sport's best boxers against each other: both Holzken and Kongolo regularly train at Mayweather's gym in Las Vegas.

"I think it will be a good fight. He is good boxer and strong guy, but I think I am better and more experienced. He has some skills, but I am well-trained for him and I am ready to go," says Holzken, adding that he has not done anything in particular to take account of Kongolo's boxing abilities.

"No it's the same, I train only for myself and not especially for an opponent. I don't look at the opponent too much. I saw one or two fights of Kongolo's and that is about it. A fight is a fight and anything can happen.

"You can train for something and then something completely different can happen. I learned that in my second fight with Buakaw. I trained three months for it and then everything I trained for didn't happen. So then I said I would never train for anyone that way again. I would just train myself and prepare myself 100%. Let them prepare for me instead of me preparing for them."

GLORY 29 Copenhagen takes place this Saturday, April 16 and airs live in the US on ESPN 3, then via tape-delay on ESPN 2. It will be preceded by the GLORY Superfight Series 29 card which airs live on UFC Fight Pass and is headlined by Zack Mwekassa, fighting just a few weeks out from having his life saved by a criminal's poor gun-handling skills.