$270k purse for first time fighter win

Pro poker player Olivier Busquetwas looking for some training motivation. He hit upon the idea of challenging someone in the pro poker community to an MMA fight, and put up $120,000.

JC Alvarado, who has an MMA background, bit on the offer, and put up $150,000 of his own. So someone was getting a six figure payday for their first smoker, which has to be a record for the sport.

“We have to figure out the venue, the judges, and the ref,” said Alvarado to PokerNews in October of last year. “He wanted six months to change, so we’re shooting right before Monaco, SCOOP, and WSOP, which is like a busy period. Before that there’s kind of nothing going on. We figured we’d train six months and then fight right around the end of April.”

“I think most people are kind of thinking I’m like some badass MMA fighter, which I’m not. I’ve been training for a while, but it’s been so sporadic that I teeter between barely making it to blue belt level in jujitsu and then not train six months and go back to being white belt level. I’m not that good. Who knows how athletic Olivier is.”

It’s the end of April, and they did it, at the famed Syndicate MMA. Busquet weighed 187.5, to Alvarado’s 165. The results were solid for a smoker.

Busquet took it.