Holzken vs Kongolo: The Art of the Set Up

You know by now that this is a game of styles. If you match two of the top fighters in the world you are not going to see them execute their game perfectly because the nature of an even or close match up is to take on the form of a struggle and not a technical exhibition. Worse, when two counter fighters or defensive prodigies are matched the bout will inevitably become one in which no one wants to push the action, and any point scored or lead taken is desperately clung to until the round ends.

When Nieky Holzken and Yoann Kongolo met at Glory 29 their styles conspired to create a five round torrent of tit-for-tat exchanges. Rarely will you be treated to such a rewarding clash of heads. Because Holzken and Kongolo are not counter punchers or defensive ring generals, they are both offensive combination fighters. They throw in volume and lay traps. They switch stances to create new angles, they raise their opponent's guard to land body shots, they force a leg check to push kick their opponent off balance. Defensively sound enough to cover against most of what was thrown at them, and stubborn enough to never take a step away from their A game, the result was combination after combination. One for another, back and forth, or one man's amid the other's.

The early going gave few hints at what was to come as the men traded jabs and right low kicks, looking for an opening. By the end of the round however Holzken's cleverness was showing. A series of push kicks including a nice skipping right low kick into a lead leg push kick forced the shorter Kongolo away. As Kongolo pushed back in, Holzken attempted to score his money left hook on the counter but connected with the guard. Here he used that classic Dutch strategy of using a blocked hook to pull Kongolo onto a knee strike.

But as the round ended Kongolo switched to southpaw and found effect with the lead hand. The corkscrew lead uppercut, a favorite set up of Naseem Hamed and Marvin Hagler, would continue to find Holzken's jaw from Kongolo's switches into the southpaw stance throughout the bout.

In the second round Kongolo found continued success from switches into a southpaw stance. Summoning the spirit of Andy Hug, he attacked Holzken's rear leg with kicks. The rear leg, being less commonly targeted, is rarely as well conditioned to punishment as the lead leg of an experienced fighter. Hug forced many top flight fighters to a knee with this method.

Where Kongolo excelled was in the Ernesto Hoost and Rob Kaman style of firing extensive combinations against the guard and punctuating them with low kicks.

Amid the back and forth throwing of combinations, Holzken attempted to change things up by throwing out a couple of counters. Holzken chopped down with venomous right hooks across the top of Kongolo's jab which succeeded in calming him down for periods. Notice in this sequence that the calm after the cross counter is quickly capitalized on with a breaking of the stance via inside low kick and a knee up the middle.

Where Holzken has been made to look uncomfortable in the past by men he cannot get in range to use his swarming combination punching against, he used distance masterfully throughout this bout. Forcing the shorter, aggressive fighter away with straight kicks, he would intercept with knees when Kongolo stepped back in, or allow Kongolo into range so that he could get off his combinations with his hands. He would finish his combinations with a push kick and it was back out to range again.

Notice in the above sequence that Holzken presents the long push kicks, steps in to meet Kongolo and flurries with his hands, teeps out again, lands a one-two, and retreats in an attempt to convince Kongolo to run onto his spinning backfist.

While Holzken's left hook to the liver was much more infrequent than in most of his fights, he made great use of his knees, simply jabbing them up into the path of Kongolo as the latter closed the gap. Here's a lovely instance in which Holzken retreats on an angle after just switching to a southpaw stance, shelling himself in the long guard, and immediately returns with a pair of knees to the midsection.

Holzken has never been known as a great straight kicker—in fact his losses to Buakaw largely came from the Thai great slamming teeps and jabs up the center line as Holzken tried to get in range to throw combinations. Yet Holzken went to the straight kicks far more in this fight and though they didn't look like real hurting blows they opened many a door for him. He repeatedly raised his rear knee as if to push kick before stepping in with a straight punch. Joe Schilling has made a career out of these sorts of shifts.

At the end of the third round, Kongolo took a step back. Just as Holzken had attempted to waltz Kongolo right onto the spinning back fist by giving him a whiff of retreat, Kongolo baited Holzken in only to plant him on his rump with a back kick. No knockdown was ruled as the kick seemingly lifted Holzken off of his feet, but Holzken seemed winded and immediately shelled up. His output for the rest of the round was near non-existent.

But Holzken was getting more comfortable through the rounds and his creativity on offence—something I have heaped praise upon in numerous other articles—began to make the difference. Rather than throwing out a number of blows to keep the opponent's hands occupied and then capitalizing with a good blow in an unprotected area, Holzken is a master a making each strike serve a function. Examine the sequence below. Holzken throws his left hook against the guard and switches out to his left side into a southpaw stance, throwing a left round kick. Notice how his inside low kick is intended to bend Kongolo forward for an uppercut, and immediately following by that knee raise into stepping right hand and another nice low kick. Every part of that sequence served to take Kongolo out of his guard rather than momentarily paralyze him in it. It didn't look like one long sequence he'd worked on the pads or in sparring every day, but it was built of smaller set ups which he obviously does.

That isn't to paint Kongolo as just a three punch combo into low kick kind of fighter. His flurries into low kicks also served to excellently set up his body jab—something you don't typically see a lot of in kickboxing but which is appearing more and more in Glory bouts.

When the final round opened, Kongolo cranked it up straight to eleven. Pouncing on Holzken he got some good right hands through and moved the champion to the ropes.

At many points in the fourth and fifth rounds both men were hitting each other mid combination and the momentum of the bout seemed to swing like a pendulum.

Holzken woke up as Kongolo settled down and suddenly Holzken was finding the mark with his bodywork more than at any point previously. Notice in the sequence below that Holzken is able to tag Kongolo's liver with a left hook off of a right uppercut—the standard Holzken set up, intended to straighten out his man's posture and expose the midriff—and that as Kongolo returns Holzken is able to take an angle and score a wider left hook to the liver again.

Holzken's left hook to the liver might be the best in the world of kickboxing and he sets it up as well as any professional boxer. In addition to his favorite right uppercut to liver hook, he will happily double or triple up on the left hook, dropping the last one low.

Or reverse his favorite pairing to use the liver shot to bring the opponent's head forwards in hopes of scoring the uppercut.

By the end of the round, Holzken was running away with it. Again the manipulation of range became a key factor. He'd push kick Kongolo out, only to let him back in onto a left hook or a knee. At the end of the below sequence he even feigned a clinch in order to land a spinning backfist—Jon Jones would have been proud.

If you haven't realized just why I am heaping so much praise on this fight yet, it is because both men are fighters with a 'bag of tricks'. They like their set ups and their combinations. Holzken's are especially thoughtful and yet even in a five round, back-and-forth bout, Holzken's combinations only got smarter and sharper as the fight went on. Obviously he's not making it all up as he goes, he has set ups and he pieces them together in sequences as he feels them, but to be able to retain and apply these at a point in the fight when almost anyone else would be head hunting or throwing out the basic, instinctual one-two-three-low kick combinations is inspiring. When was the last time you saw this kind of variety from a fighter in a close fight against a world class opponent?

Even in his last flurry of the fight Holzken recovered from a missed wheel kick, hit a stiff knee, and went back to work breaking Kongolo's posture with inside low kicks and capitalizing on them with a knee to the head. Thoughtful, scientific work right until the final bell.

I watched this fight the morning after it took place because of the sheer amount of fights on last weekend and I confess that when I had a peek at the results before viewing I was a little disappointed by another Glory event with a streak of decisions. When I actually got to Holzken versus Kongolo, however, I was ready to call it my front runner for best technical fight of the year.

If you know even the rudiments of striking technique this is one you should watch, soak in the beauty of, and file in your brain under 'Case Studies'. You will not see many better instructional videos on how to create openings against a high level opponent.