Meet your new favorite lady fighter. A distant cousin of fellow multiple combat sport practitioner Nieky Holzken, this strikingly beautiful 22 year old Dutchwoman is following in his footsteps traversing the same path from K1 (where she was a 51kg world champion) to conventional boxing (where she is currently a 3-0 flyweight prospect). She took up the latter primarily to sharpen up her fist game in the former, and had over 90 amateur bouts until deciding that she liked the sweet science but found the pool of competition in the unpaid ranks in her country too limited. Today she is stepping up to challenge for her first hardware (two for one, both the vacant Women's International Boxing Federation Intercontinental flyweight title and vacant Global Boxing Union Female Intercontinental flyweight title on the line) in her first eight-rounder, on a card in North Rhine-Westphalia (stay tuned, I'm sniffing around for a stream and will do a RBR if possible). Her opponent is Klaudia Ferencziova of Slovakia, who is entering her 98th professional contest at the age of just 25. Of those, she has lost 69 but only been stopped four times. So at the very least, Holzken will log some lengthy rounds against somebody with a wealth of experience...while still probably not in danger of losing in this early stage of her career. So far none of her pro bouts have been uploaded on YT, but there is plenty of her kickboxing and more than a couple of her amateurs bouts. From the latter, one can plainly see that with her voracious offense and daredevil reflexive-based defense, her style was always going to suit the pro game more, and her impatience to rip off the headgear makes sense: This content is protected The flyweight division in women's boxing has long been nigh-monopolized by Mexico and Japan. It would be nice to see an infusion of fresh talent from elsewhere. Particularly with a face like this... This content is protected This content is protected
Not gonna lie and I know it shallow of me, but I have a much harder time really getting into female combative sports compared to men, regardless of how beautiful some of them are. But honestly there really are a number of female fighters with some excellent skill sets and talent. Thanks for bring her to the attention of us. I'll get into her as much as I can but compared to men -- and again I'm a shallow a dude in regards to female comative sports and it's participants -- I just can't seem to take the next step in following and backing it like I do with men.
Fair enough. And the jury is out as to how successfully her style does translate into the pros - but from watching her amateurs fights and some of her kickboxing, she can throw hands pretty well, and doesn't shy from a dust-up, even against taller/bigger women.
I kind of feel the same way, boss. I work with a few pro & amateur females and it can be very frustrating. It's hard to get them to sit down on anything and punch from the floor up. Most just touch, touch, touch with arm punches. Which is why so many female scraps turn into fire fights, they don't have the power to hurt each other so they just stand and wing arm punches. It's more, "who's got better stamina and hand speed" than anything else. Slipping and countering does not happen often either, it's mostly coming forward on the front foot, staying active, out working your opponent, and almost everything is to the head. Female boxing is just a different animal. I have a ton of respect for all of them, they are tough as hell, but you just have to temper your expectations of what you're going to get out of them in terms of power, technique and speed. I just don''t find it near as entertaining overall. But, I do still watch and enjoy.
Do you know if Nicky plans on boxing anymore? He's not bad considering most of his career was spent kickboxing.
I think he redirected his focus back there. Since the WBSS he is 2-0 in the One Championship promotion.
Holzken def. Ferencziova by UD, with scorecards of 80-71 x3, per BoxRec. So it would seem that she did at least score a knockdown (unless the Slovakian got herself penalized a point for a foul).
