When Mike Winkeljohn talks about the importance of the kicking game, he’s not wondering whether Dan Bailey is the long-term answer on field goals for the Dallas Cowboys.

He’s talking about the powerful kicks delivered by Holly Holm as a mixed-martial arts fighter.

Albuquerque’s Holm, a world champion boxer, will be seeking her third victory as a cagefighter tonight. Her bout with Katie Merrill (1-0) is the local headliner of a Bellator MMA card at the Santa Ana Star Center.

	Today MMA: Christian M’Pumbu vs. Attila Vegh, Holly Holm vs. Katie Merrill, nine other bouts, Santa Ana Star Center, 6 p.m. TV: Spike. Tickets: $25-$90, santaanastarcenter.com

In her first two MMA fights, Holm certainly displayed her boxing skills. But she ended both fights with powerful kicks, first to the legs of Christina Domke, then to the liver of Jan Finney.

Winkeljohn, Holm’s boxing trainer and MMA standup coach, first worked with her as a kickboxer. The power in her legs, he says, is a defensive weapon, as well as an offensive one.

“Holly’s advantage,” he says, “is that she’s got a kicking game that can lengthen the space, and that makes it that much harder for people to take her down. Now they’re having to rush that much harder at her, and they leave themselves exposed.”

Merrill, of Brighton, Mass., won her only MMA fight against Kaline Medeiros in November 2011 by second-round submission (arm bar). There’s video online of Merrill competing in a grappling competition.

That information, coupled with Holm’s obvious skills in standup, suggests Merrill might prefer to take tonight’s fight to the ground.

That happened to Holm in her MMA debut against Domke, who took her down, passed her guard and reached a full-mount position. The Albuquerquean escaped within a few seconds en route to a second-round victory by TKO.

Holm trains at Jackson-Winkeljohn MMA whether she’s training for the ring or the cage, and Winkeljohn says she’s far more schooled in the ways of mixed-martial arts than her two career fights would suggest.

“She’s been doing it forever in the gym when she’s not boxing,” he says. “… She learns at an exponential pace. Holly’s a very good athlete who’s wiling to take the time to learn things correctly.

“Jiujitsu is part of her game. It’s definitely something we’re working on, offensively, as well as defensively, and she’s getting better every day.”

Holm’s fight headlines the nontelevised portion of tonight’s card. The televised (Spike) main event features a Bellator light heavyweight title fight between champion Christian M’Pumbu (18-4-1) of Kinshasa, Congo, and challenger Attila Vegh (28-4-2) of Bratislava, Slovakia.

The card also features Bellator lightweight tournament semifinals between Jason Fischer (6-1) of Detroit and David Rickels (12-1) of Derby, Kan., and Will Brooks (9-0) of Schaumberg, Ill., and Saad Awad (13-4) of San Bernardino, Calif.

The local portion of the card features the return to the cage of Albuquerque wrestling legend Lenny Lovato Jr. (6-1). He’ll face Blas Avena (7-6) of Las Vegas, Nev.
Holm has had a leg up on her cage competition

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— This article appeared on page D3 of the Albuquerque Journal