Dryden’s Nate Hollenbeck wins MMA debut

After graduating from Dryden High School in 2020, Nate Hollenbeck decided to start training in mixed martial arts (MMA). A year and a half into his venture in the sport, he was able to put what he learned to the test by taking his first amateur fight. He passed that test on Jan. 8 at Art of Combat 15 in Hudson, New York, winning by unanimous decision.

Everything came together quickly for Hollenbeck, but he and his coaches believed they had the right matchup for him to step into the cage for the first time. He explained how the fight came to fruition.

“It all just started with the matchmaker for that promotion — she reached out to my coach,” Hollenbeck said. “Her name is Jessica [O’Brien], and she’s awesome at her job. She really set it up for us. Then, my coaches reached out to me and talked to me about it. We thought that me and Jake [Reed], my opponent, that our styles matched up really well and that we’d have a good fight. So, we decided to take it.”

Hollenbeck did not have much time to get into fighting shape after accepting the matchup, so he worked extra hard in the weeks leading up to his debut.

“It was on about three weeks’ notice,” Hollenbeck said. “The second we knew about the fight, I was in the gym six days a week going for double-leg takedowns. We did a lot of work on the assault bike and lots of wrestling rounds and grappling on the wall, then some really good hard sparring rounds as well to really get me in shape for it.”

Understandably, it takes a lot of courage to go from just training to being locked in a cage with another fighter. For Hollenbeck, that itch to compete came a few months into his experience at Brojo MMA.

“I was always kind of 50/50 on [fighting],” Hollenbeck said. “When I first started, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to just do it to stay in shape or if I wanted to compete. But once I got about six months in and really started going strong in it, I knew that I wanted to fight.”

As for the fight itself, Hollenbeck worked through several striking exchanges on the feet and utilized his wrestling skills to take home the win on the judges’ scorecards after three 3-minute rounds.

His hand was raised by referee Dan Miragliotta, who has officiated some of the biggest fights in MMA history, including two UFC title fights just last year. Having a well-known referee in the cage with him truly added to Hollenbeck’s debut experience.

“I was a little starstruck when I had a conversation with him afterwards,” Hollenbeck said. “I have a video and I just had this huge smile on my face the whole time. I couldn’t believe that I was talking to Dan Miragliotta. He’s such a great guy, and I really hope I get to see him a couple more times, at least in the cage.”

It was Miragliotta’s job to enforce New York’s amateur MMA ruleset, which requires fighters to wear shin pads for their first three amateur fights. Hollenbeck did not have any issue with that, but he did have to make adjustments during the fight due to another rule that does not allow any strikes to the head of a grounded opponent.

“With the ground-and-pound to the head, there were so many times when l was there in side control and I thought, ‘Man, I wish I could hit this guy in the head because I could do something big here,’” Hollenbeck said. “But I adjusted and I was able to use the opportunities on the ground to land some really big knees to the body. That was my main weapon on the ground — my knees.”

There’s no better measurement for how quickly you are learning MMA than actually stepping into a fight. Hollenbeck gave his assessment on where he’d like to improve after seeing himself in action.

“I was happy with how my striking was, but I think there’s definitely still a lot of room for improvement,” Hollenbeck said. “I feel like I can really tighten up my shots and work on my speed, my power, the normal things but especially just keeping my grace under pressure. I also want to work on my offensive wrestling a little more. I didn’t really have much time to show that off in the fight, but I definitely want to keep working on my takedowns and getting it down to the ground.”

Hollenbeck was a three-year varsity wrestler for Dryden in high school and is the younger brother of Dryden coach Rex Hollenbeck. Having the base of wrestling skills in his arsenal gave him a head start on his MMA training.

“It made such a difference,” Nate said. “I wasn’t even the best wrestler in high school. I was able to improve pretty good into my senior year. But it was absolutely super valuable. It saved me so much time. I didn’t have to learn how to control my body and how to be aware of my body and dexterity, all that kind of stuff. It came because I had that base in wrestling, so it made it so much easier to transition.”

After getting his hand raised earlier this month, Nate has the itch. He’s already searching for opportunities to step into the cage again.

“I can’t wait to fight again,” Nate said. “We’re looking at a card in March. It’s being put on by Ryan Ciotoli, who ran Gladius Fights in this area for a while. That’s going to be down in Virginia as long as they can finalize the venue. But all in all, I’m super excited to fight again.”

Nate has quite a lot on his plate. He’s currently studying criminology at SUNY Cortland and is also the security manager at Target in Lansing. He utilizes the free time he has to continue improving in MMA, which has truly become a passion for him.

“Honestly, I want to take this as far as it can take me,” Nate said. “I try to put in the work as much as I can. When I have idle time, I’m in the gym. Even outside of fight camp, I try to get in there six days a week and get at least an hour of training in. I love the sport. I love everything about it, even the hard part. There’s nothing like it for me, so I want to take it as far as it can take me.”

Click here to watch Hollenbeck’s victory.

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