Nieky Holzken (90-11, 46 KO's) has called for “big mouth” Cedric Doumbé (56-4-1, 35 KO's) to be matched with him next.
The GLORY welterweight champion made his third successful defense of the title at GLORY 34 DENVER, defeating long-time rival Murthel Groenhart (63-22-3, 36 KO's) by way of unanimous decision in the card's main event.
Afterwards Holzken declared an end to the long-running war between himself and Groenhart. He then turned his attention to Doumbé, who coincidentally also came to prominence by beating Groenhart at GLORY 28 PARIS in March of this year.
“Cedric Doumbé has a big mouth and if he wants he can step up and I will beat his ass next,” states Holzken.
“He sent me a message on Instagram: 'Please beat Murthel Groenhart so that I can then become the first fighter [in GLORY] to beat Nieky Holzken'. So after the fight, [Cedric], you're gonna take your words back.
“There are more people I want [to fight] but he can step up. He has a big mouth for a long time. First he talked after he beat Murthel Groenhart, called me out, and now he sends me a message before a fight. What kind of people do such things?”
“It doesn't get under my skin but I don't like that he sent me a message. Why send me a message? If you earn your shot, you earn your shot. You're going to be beaten anyway. You can talk as much as you want, but it's better that you do no dancing and talking. Just step up and try to knock me out, as I say to every opponent of mine.”
On the subject of Groenhart, Holzken insisted that their series was now at end. Their first fight was in 2010, the second was at GLORY 26 AMSTERDAM in December last year. The first two decisions attracted much debate and Groenhart always maintained he had been robbed. There was no argument regarding the Denver decision, but does Holzken feel a fourth fight is needed?
“There will be no fourth fight. There will be no quartet. We [drank] a beer together and we talked about it and we don't want to fight again. We need some new blood in the welterweight division because it's not nice to fight always the same people because it becomes like a family business, you understand?” said the welterweight champion.
“My gameplan was working: keeping distance, making points with the inside low kick, the outsid elow kick and score with jabs. I did that but in third round I made a kick and I think I [dislocated] my toe, so I couldn't stand it on very well any more.
“In the fourth I slowed down and in the fifth he hit me with a good knee on the body and I had to take a step back. But I did my job, I think I won three or four rounds of the fight. All the talk is done now and I am still the champion. Murthel is also a great [fighter] but there can only be one.”
GLORY's next event takes place next week when GLORY 35 NICE goes down in Nice, France at the Palais Nikai on Saturday, November 5.
The main event sees light-heavyweight champion Artem Vakhitov return from injury to face interim champion Zack Mwekassa, with the winner being crowned the undisputed champion.
