Lex Veldhuis vs ElkY: the 2011 kickboxing match

A challenge first floated at EPT Barcelona in 2009 finally took place in Marbella on 22 November 2011. It lasted into the second round.

How it started

The idea of a fight between the two Team PokerStars Pros was first mooted at EPT Barcelona in 2009 [2]. It was postponed several times, by injuries and other complications, including the Black Friday shutdown of US online poker in April 2011 [4]. In early October 2011 Veldhuis announced on his blog that the two would fight on 22 November 2011 in front of television cameras [1]. In mid-November he followed up with a post setting out the rules, titled "Kickboxing match vs Elky" [5][2]. That post is the page news sites linked to at the time, which is why this URL still exists.

The rules

Date	Tuesday 22 November 2011 [2][3]
Place	Marbella, Spain [2][4]
Format	Five rounds of three minutes, K-1 style rules [2][4]
How to win	Knockout, technical knockout or retirement only. No points decision; anything else was a draw [2][4]
Allowed	Punches, spinning kicks, kicks to most of the body, knees [2][5]
Not allowed	Head butts, elbows, groin strikes, rabbit punches [2][5]
Protection	Gloves; no head or leg padding [2]
Broadcast	Not streamed live, but filmed [2][4]

Veldhuis had about three inches of height on Grospellier [2] and publicly rated himself the favourite: he wrote that he was more athletic and had "some experience in fights", while conceding ElkY was in better shape [5]. He also took private side bets on the result through his Twitter account @RaSZi [2]. Not everyone was amused: Doyle Brunson tweeted that he worried someone would get badly hurt [6].

The result

Veldhuis won by knockout. Midway through the second round, about four minutes into the fight, he landed two kicks to the head; Grospellier went down and could not continue [3][7]. Afterwards Veldhuis praised him for getting up after the first kick, saying he had "a lot of respect for him" [3].

Timeline

2009Fight first proposed at EPT Barcelona [2]
April 2011Black Friday adds to the delays [4]
Early Oct 2011Date set for 22 November, announced on veldhuispoker.com [1]
15–16 Nov 2011Rules confirmed: five three-minute rounds, win by knockout only [2][5]
22 Nov 2011Veldhuis wins by knockout in round two in Marbella [3]

Prop bets like this have a long history in poker, where players will wager on almost anything. This one is remembered because it was settled with real kicks rather than a coin flip.

Sources