Terrence Chan, the Poker Pro Turned MMA Fighter

At first glance, poker and mixed martial arts have nothing in common – one of them is about strength, technique, and reflexes, while the other is about “reading” people and using the right strategies. And a bit of luck, of course. Needless to say, when you think of a person playing bookies in Vietnam, Canada, or any other part of the world, you don’t envision an MMA fighter. Except, of course, if you envision Terrence Chan who made a name for himself in both worlds.

Who is Terrence Chan?

Terrence Chan is an online poker player that his peers describe as “dominant”. A former employee of the online poker juggernaut PokerStars, Chan has collected more than $1.2 million in career wins, has two Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) bracelets under his belt that he won in a single night, and a World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title, too. 

But he is not the typical poker professional. Chan has trained in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and at one point – when he already passed the $1 million mark in his poker career – he has decided that it was time for him to step into the ring for real.

Going pro

Chan first stepped into the ring in an official competition as an amateur in the Battlefield Fight League (BFL) bantamweight division. He won his first fight with a TKO in just two rounds. After a couple of further wins in the coming years, and a loss to Ander Sanchez in the 2016 World MMA Championships selection, he went pro – he fought in various promotions, from the UGB to the Rise FC. He has a record of 4-2-0, with his last recorded fight taking place in November 2018. He lost at the time with a first-round TKO to Chad “The Monster” Anheliger, who, by the way, is up for a fight in UFC APEX on September 7th, in the bantamweight division.

What it felt like?

When PokerListings asked him about what such a major shift in his career felt like, he said “It was fun, almost like a completely new sport yet still familiar”. Coming from a poker background, he could appreciate the complex nature of mixed martial arts. “I love that it’s such a complex game,” he said. “It’s very multifaceted. In the standup, the ground, and in wrestling, there are so many moves and so many counters,” Chan said. “And if you’re one-dimensional and only understand one discipline well and the other guy understands the other disciplines better, he can have a big advantage since you put yourself into such bad situations.” 

“The fact you have to take all these strategic decisions into consideration and have to do it really quickly and be physically capable of doing them is a really interesting physical puzzle.”