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On Tuesday, the long-awaited kickboxing match between Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier and Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis took place. After two years of planning, the two Team PokerStars Pros met in Marbella, Spain for their match, which lasted just four minutes. In the second round of the bruising five-round contest, Veldhuis delivered a pair of kicks to Grospellier's head to send the Frenchman to the mat, securing a KO for the win.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, you may be curious as to how this match originated. You have to wind back to EPT Barcelona in 2009 when ElkY and Veldhuis were messing about at the hotel. Veldhuis wrote recently: "Elky said, 'You can't defeat me, I'm Elky'. This of course made me laugh and I asked him if he really thought he could fight. He had some training for a bet with Sorel (Mizzi) and he was convinced he was a powernerd. Everything was in good spirits still, but I thought it was a good moment to seize and challenge him to a fight."
Grospellier accepted the challenge and the two agreed to fight at the 2011 World Series of Poker. Unfortunately, the players soon ran into numerous obstacles including obtaining a license. All told, they would have to spend nearly $30,000 to make it happen, so they decided to postpone. After exploring different European venues, the two accepted an offer from a Spanish TV show willing to host and record the event.

With a date and venue secured, the two ironed out the following rules:
- Kicks allowed to every part of the body, except for the groin area

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