The American Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters love a challenge, which is why many enjoy spending time at casinos. Here, they experience an adrenaline rush without any risks to physical health they face in MMA. The UFC receives sponsorship from retail and online casinos, which has created a link between the two, which many UFC fighters have taken advantage of to win big.
Whilst mixed martial arts (MMA) is traditionally associated with strength, aggression, toughness and competitiveness, there has been rapid growth and booming popularity in women's mixed martial arts where technique is offering a different experience. In the same way, traditional casinos were once the exclusive domain of men but the surge of online gaming at sites like 2 have seen more women at the card tables. The link between the two industries, where winning players have to adhere to well-planned strategies, explains why many UFC fighters and personalities love spending their cash at casinos, like those listed here:
Dana White
Dana White is the current President of the UFC and a successful blackjack player. He was pivotal in transforming the UFC into a profitable business and also plays high states in poker, able to spend USD $25,000 a hand.
He was such a good strategist that he was banned from playing the game at one casino where he managed to win USD $2 million and then another USD $5 million from the game.
Lex Veldhuis
Lex Veldhuis is not only an MMA fighter, but he also streams poker tournaments and has achieved celebrity status in the poker world. In 2020, Veldhuis won USD $62,620 from poker. Veldhuis is convinced he plays his best games when his entire bankroll is on the table. In the same way, he challenged fellow poker star Bertrand ‘ElkY' Grospellier to a six-figure kickboxing prop bet later in 2011. He considered he had a big edge against ElkY in the fight because at the time they made the bet, neither had any kickboxing experience but Veldhuis had been involved in sports where coordination was as important as strength, which was what ElkY was bringing to the table.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Bertrand Grospellier won the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour title, among others. He is perhaps best known as the MMA fighter who staged a fight with Lex Veldhuis, mentioned above.
Terrence Chan
Terrence Chan is a dominant online poker player who has won USD $1.2 million by playing the game and is also a winner of a World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title. Once he was a millionaire, he followed his dream to fight in pro MMA, where he specialized in the use of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai.
He won his first match with a TKO in the second round in the Battlefield Fight League (BFL) bantamweight division. Coming from a poker background, he appreciated the complex nature of mixed martial arts and the variety of strategic decisions that need to swiftly be taken into consideration at the same time as being assured of being physically capable of doing them.
Floyd Mayweather
In 2017, Floyd Mayweather fought the former UFC featherweight and lightweight double-champion who is currently ninth in the UFC lightweight rankings, Conor McGregor, in Las Vegas. Mayweather is one of the greatest boxers of all time, someone who enjoys the challenge of a bout as well as spending vast sums at the casinos since he considers gambling to be a recreational activity.
Despite officially retiring in 2017 after beating McGregor from which he earned USD $420m, Mayweather now charges fans around USD USD $1,600 for online meet-and-greets. That's plenty enough to continue his hobby at several Las Vegas casinos, having his own “Money Team” to search out the best sportsbook odds and placing bets for him.