Part of the "new breed" of fighters who've begun their mixed martial arts training and careers at a very early age, Marcin Held is a talented lightweight currently competing on the European circuit. Held became involved in martial arts at a very early age - first training in jiu jitsu, before turning his attention to professional fighting and making his debut at the age of sixteen. Held has had a very successful start to his career including winning an eight man - one night tournament, and already holds several wins over quality opponents at only seventeen years of age.

A Polish BJJ prodigy, Held had already earned his purple belt by the age of seventeen and is currently on track to become the youngest black belt in Poland's history. As young as he is Held is a very active and accomplished grappler in his home country, and despite his age has a very respectable ground game as a fighter. Held is still maturing physically and has not been able to get by relying on strength and power, but has compensated for that by displaying very sound technical skills while continuing to refine his overall ground game. He's a crafty grappler who's always composed and constantly looking to make things happen. Held has a good top game with good guard passing skills, ground and pound and a dangerous submission game, and is very active fighting off his back with good sweeps, leg locks, armbars and triangle attempts (see bout with Borys Mankowski below). Held will need to improve his wrestling abilities and physically he will need to continue working on his strength and conditioning, but he still has considerable maturing left to do, is well ahead of the learning curve and does have excellent potential as a grappler.

Held's base and natural instincts are that of a grappler but he has shown developing striking skills and has considerable room and time for improvement. Held takes a technical approach and avoids getting wild or out of control on his feet, fights with composure - always keeping his hands up while displaying steadily improving footwork and striking skills. Held uses his jab effectively, mixes up his punches and kicks well and does a very good job of using his striking to set up his takedown attempts. Held has not shown much power or "explosiveness" to his standup, but given his age and physical maturity it shouldn't come as to much of a surprise. Held has an incredible amount of time to continue refining his skills, and as he matures and gets stronger will only get that much better on his feet.