K-1 Max June 28th 2007-06-29
Bukaw to soon for Nieky ” the Natural” Holzken
After Nieky won the Scandinavian K-1 max GP he made the qualification place for the last sixteen.
Three weeks ago Golden Glory was notified of Nieky’s opponent – Buakaw Por.Pramuk from Thailand. Bas Boon asked if K- 1 did not like Nieky? K-1 answered that nobody really wanted to fight him for the qualification and that this was a great opportunity to prove himself. Nieky just turned 23 years old, he has a nice record but never fought in Japan or a big show like this against a two time K-1 max winner.
Isn’t there a more experience fighter for Buakaw, yeah there is but we would like Nieky as he is a KO specialist.
It is difficult for the management to take the right decision in this case. Advantage: if he wins he is an instant star and qualifies for the last eight finalists. If he loses and stands for three rounds and, gets more experience, it’s still ok. However if he gets knocked out on his debut in Japan having the potential of being a young star, that is bad!
Nieky is a born fighter he started boxing at age 8 and kickboxing at 11 he lived the fighters life, his family fully supports him and travelled with 20 fans with him to Japan.
The decision was made he was going to fight Bukaw
Nieky was accomplished by legend Ramon Dekkers and master trainer Cor Hemmers and was well prepared.
The first luxurious hotel Le Meridien Grand Pacific Tokyo made a huge impression on the young Nieky, who really realized now that his dream came true.
Nieky is tall for his weight but had no problem in making his weight.
It was the bus drive to the famous Budokan in Tokyo where Nieky realized what hard work and devotion lead to, he was going to fight the two time K-1 max champion Buakaw Por. Pramuk.
Entering the Budokan with millions of viewers and a huge live audience made a huge impression to Nieky, but he walked to the ring like he was going to fight just another fight as he did almost 50 times.
The first round was great and Nieky scored with a lot of inside low kicks. The second round the Buakaw was changing his strategy and stopped almost every single attack of the young Nieky Holzken. In the corner Nieky told Cor and Ramon that he felt like he was kind of freezing and could not create any opening against this world class fighter Buakaw. In the third round Nieky connected once with a hard punch which was only replied by a smile from Buakaw.
Nieky lost a decision but fought the full three rounds, not a bad performance against the two times K-1 max winner and fighting in Japan for the first time at the best event in the world.
Buakaw told the press after the fight that Nieky hit him every round and that he was not satisfied with his performance and that there was room for improvement, he would train harder for October, he gave Nieky a compliment telling that he probably would have beat many of the opponents out there tonight, not a bad compliment from the two time K-1 max winner!
The fans liked Nieky, he stepped in against the most difficult opponent and fought the full three rounds. With a little more experience this young golden glory fighter has a great future ahead of him.
For sure he will be asked back in Japan, with some more fights he will build up the experience he needs, like Nieky said when he came back to the dressing room” I will train harder to become champion, I have to get that Belt!”
Story by Bas Boon and Lindsay Muro photo’s by bas boon (C) golden glory
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