UFC fighter injures poker player
JC Alvarado rumoured to take hit to the liver while in training with Ultimate Fighting champion for his MMA match with Olivier Busquet.
High stakes poker pro JC Alvarado is rumoured to have got more than he bargained for in preparation for his upcoming mixed martial arts fight with fellow high stakes player Olivier Busquet.
Mexican Alvarado is believed to be in training for the fight and, during the latest episode of Joe Rogan's podcast, UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson let slip that, while sparring in a mixed martial arts speciality gym, he injured a professional poker player.
While it is by no means confirmed that the injured grinder was Alvarado, the location of the facility and the clues in Johnson's interview has led many to assume that was the case.
During the interview the fighter revealed;
"I was doing my thing and I hit him in the liver. At that point I started hitting him in the face. I’m very nice and I promise all my sparring partners that I’d never hurt them. He then brought his hands up and I hit him in the stomach again."
Upcoming fight
Alvarado is in training for the match after answering October's Twitter call out from his opponent, Olivier Busquet, in which the American requested motivation to do some MMA training.
Busquet, with career earnings of $5,020,183, put up $270,000 and within a month Alvarado went live on the same social platform to announce that the fight was on.
While Alvarado is skilled in both kickboxing and a Brazilian variant of Jiu Jitsu, he is the lighter of the two and is likely to weigh in at 165 pounds. However, Busquet is the bigger has a larger frame which should see him enter the cage at around 187.5.
High-stakes prop bets are nothing new and, back in 2009, Copenhagen hosted a boxing match between Scandinavian pros, Gus Hansen and Theo Jorgensen. In order to secure victory - and $25,000 - Hansen sparred with Danish middle weight champ, Mikkel Kessler but was unable to stop Jorgensen winning in three rounds.
As yet, no date has been set, although the latest bout is pencilled in for April next year.
