Poker players prepare for MMA battle

On November 22 two Team PokerStars Pros, Lex Veldhuis and Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier will square off in five-round Kickboxing match. The match has been a few years in the making with the basic outline of the wager being formulate at the 2009 EPT Barcelona, so if the idea seems a bit juvenile just remember the contest between the 28 year-old Veldhuis and the 30 year-old ElkY was originally discussed while they were 26 and 28 respectively!

The match will be overseen by a referee and fought under the following rules:

• Five 3-minute rounds using 10 oz gloves and NO helmets or shin pads
• There will only be a winner if there is a knockout or TKO; or if one of the two quits (there will be no scoring)
• Three knockdown rule in any round and four knockdown rule in the match
• Head-butts and rabbit punches are not allowed, Kicks to the groin, knees to the groin and in the clinch (”Thai-Boxing”) are not allowed, and elbows are not allowed

Veldhuis has been the more vocal competitor of the two all along, and continued to exude confidence on his blog saying, “I am more athletic and I have better coordination, plus some experience in fights… ElkY is in better shape and has been working out more consistently, going on special training camps and putting in a lot of hours.”

Here is how Lex sums up their fighting experience:

Me:

- Did boxing for 1.5 years when I was 16. I trained once a week for a couple of months at the time, totalling 15-20 lessons. The footwork taught in boxing actually hurt me, cause it’s different in kickboxing. It did give me good coordination for training.

- I’ve been in a couple streetfights.

- I have had a lot of injuries, most of them to the shin and ribs. I bruised 9 ribs total and nearly broke both my feet. After discussing the bet in 2009 August, I started doing some running in February, not taking it seriously till April. Then I bruised my ribs and injured my spleen. This was when we postponed the bet the first time. I wasn’t able to train for 2.5 months. After WSOP in september I started doing some kickboxing training, but I overstretched my foot in October and couldn’t fight till December. I started again and had a shin injury that made it unable for me to train for 1.5 months. during March I started training again, mostly working on cardio. I had a miniscus injury from running while I was in

Vegas 2011 WSOP. I found a guy 2 months ago who fixed it without needing surgery and I have been training a few times a week since then.

I had a shitload of injuries. This is pretty common knowledge for the people who travel the EPT’s or who are around me and Elky. It can be checked out. I just think it’s important information for possible bets. I do think I’m more athletic than Elky. My coordination is better.

Elky:

- Had kickboxing lessons during the summer of 2009 in Vegas in preparation for a bet with Sorel.

- He has done a lot of stamina/strength training the past 2 years and has been doing a lot of research on eating healthy and nutricion.

- His coordination seems a bit bad and I don’t think he is a natural athlete.

- After this WSOP he met up with Lincon Rodrigues, his new coach. Since then he has been training 4 hours a day and went to thailand for 3-4 weeks. Elky will confirm this, he has mentioned all this in interviews.

For more info on the match check out Lex’s blog at VeldhuisPoker.com