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“I tried really hard in the lead-up to the fight to say, hey, you know what? It’s Jim Miller, he’s probably going in the Hall of Fame, he’s done this, he’s done that, but listen, he’s just another dude; you can’t stand across from him and be star-struck. You gotta go in there and fight him like you would anybody else,” said Holtzman. “So I tried not put him on this pedestal. But you definitely have to respect him and respect everything he’s done. There’s definitely this aura around him and it’s special, especially when he gets inducted into the Hall of Fame, to go in there and beat him like that and knowing everything he’s done and he’s capable of. You see he came off our fight and beat that kid (Roosevelt Roberts) in a couple minutes who’s a highly touted prospect.”
But just like Miller rebounded from the loss to submit Roberts in June, Holtzman immediately reset and looked forward to his next bout, which will be this Saturday against Beneil Dariush.
“You’re just never satisfied, so once that fight was over, I was like, ‘All right, that wasn’t too bad, so what’s the next challenge?’” he said.
Dariush is quite a challenge, especially with the Californian entering the bout with a four-fight winning streak that includes three Performance of the Night bonuses. But first, to get to this weekend in Vegas, Holtzman and his family had to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, which was ultimately a different, but fulfilling experience for the couple and their son.
“My wife, fortunately works from home, and she was able to keep her job and I was luckily coming off that fight in February, right before (COVID-19 hit), so I had a little bit of a cushion and it really didn’t push me back that much,” said Holtzman. “And the time at home was definitely good to be able to be with my son every day and spend that time with him. There was some good quality time and good time to reset. I think probably everybody who has kids enjoyed it.”