Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier and Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis will be squaring off against each other at the WSOP 2011 in a kickboxing match. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier has over $6 Million in live winnings and holds both a World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour title. Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis plays high stakes live and online poker, appearing on such shows as the PokerStars Big Game and High Stakes Poker. Grospellier and Veldhuis are long time friends and both are members of Team PokerStars.
Veldhuis indicated that the kickboxing match would most likely take place the last week of May, right before the WSOP takes place. In the same Dutch interview Veldhuis said that he will be taking side wagers on the fight and that he is very confident in winning over Elky. Both RaSZi and Elky have been training kickboxing for approximately one year.
Another fight that we may see at this summer’s WSOP is Andrew “Good2cu” Robl fighting in a cage. He is currently looking for a poker pro with under a year of MMA training that would agree to fight him in an MMA cage fight. The fight would take place at about 170 lbs. With two months to go before the WSOP in Vegas it’s unclear if this fight will materialize.
For poker fans who love to watch fights, hopefully this summer we’ll get to see some famous poker players don the gloves and duke it out. It won’t be the first time. In 2009 Gus Hansen defeated Theo Jorgensen at EPT Scandanavian, in Copenhagen, in a charity boxing match to promote GusTV. Also in 2009 Liv Boeree Team PokerStars Pro beat poker reporter Melissa Castello in a three round charity boxing match in Las Vegas.