MT. PLEASANT, Mich. — For years there’s been an outcry among hockey purists who’ve seen just about enough of the goonery that had come to mark the game — get the fighting out of hockey. If you’re one of those, you might want to cover your children’s eyes. Because as we reach the quarter mark of the 21st century, there’s a group of organizers who are taking things a step further.
They are attempting to take the hockey out of fighting.
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On Saturday night, the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) will pull up its jersey sleeve to reveal an icy arm to go along with the naked knuckles. They call it Ice Wars. It’s essentially sanctioned hockey fights, which aren’t as spontaneous as the ones you see in a professional hockey game, but entirely premeditated and twice as vicious.
The slogan they are using for the inaugural event, which takes place this Saturday in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, is as if lifted straight from the label on the Jolt cola can.
“The most exciting part of hockey, without all the hockey. No sticks. No pucks. No goals. Just the fights.”
Take a bath, Connor McDavid. Get screwed Nathan McKinnon. To hell with you, Cale Makar. These gloves aren’t going to drop themselves!
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“I always thought the fights were the coolest part about hockey,” Ian Heinisch says. Heinisch, a former UFC fighter, has been named the first president of Ice Wars, and — not surprisingly — he never appreciated those times when he’d find himself watching fights only to see a hockey game break out.
“I wasn’t a huge fan of hockey, but I would watch it if it was on,” he says. “It’s a good sport, the agility, but the fights were fun. They don’t really fight as much in hockey anymore. And I was always a fan of that aspect, a fan of fighting on the ice.”
The first event goes down at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, on a fight-tailored sheet of ice. There are 10 scheduled fights that will take place on the ring-sized rink, spread across four weight classes — super heavyweight (more than 250 pounds), heavyweight (more than 200), cruiserweight (175-200), middleweight (150-175), and lightweight (under 150). What, you didn’t think there’d be weight classes?
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Who do you think is running this show, barbarians?
“It is going to look like a boxing ring a little bit bigger, but it’s going to have walls — wood walls, not rope,” Heinisch says, indicating the boards. “And as of now we’re going to have synthetic ice, but we’re looking at some arenas down the line that we’re going to have real ice.”
There will be two referees to stand idly to the side as the fight takes place. From the rules that the BKFC sent out, there will be at least three 90-second rounds for each scrap, with a maximum of five rounds, with a one-minute respite to set the jersey to rights. You get the sense that some of this stuff is malleable, as they figure it all out.
And, oh yes, the fighters — comprised of former MMA fighters, boxers, and pro hockey players — will be wearing hockey jerseys, which are a key component to a hockey fight. The old Winnipeg gi is central to leveraging. The fistful of jersey, the twisting and contorting of the body, the pulling of the jersey over the head in a tangle of defending and swinging limbs.
“I mean it’s like a boxing fight, right?” Heinisch says. “You knock ’em down, it’s a count. I think they’re tweaking some of the round stuff. It’s a short fight, pure action, smashing each other in the middle of the rink, and then if it’s a tie in the one-on-one round, they go into an icebreaker round.”
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Technically nobody is really dropping their gloves either, as each combatant will be wearing four-ounce MMA gloves. This is meant to protect the knuckles more than the skulls being targeted. As far as I know, fighters won’t be permitted to take off skates to turn them into weapons. And as for hockey sticks — well, none of these people will be needing them. Toe-drags are things of beauty in a parallel world, but not for the Ice Wars aesthetic.
Saturday night’s first show is being called “Battle of the Border,” as it pits Canadians versus Americans. A cold war of sorts, but only because of the northerly geography (the second event will take place River Cree Casino in Alberta two weeks later).
“We have pro hockey players, boxers,” Heinisch says, just as a collector might point out some of the lovely antiquities on his shelf. “We have bare-knuckle guys, two UFC vets that we signed.”
Those UFC fighters are Brian Kelleher and Charles Rosa, each who played hockey growing up, each who played punch-face for a living.
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“This is like the old-school days of UFC, where you had a jiu-jitsu guy against a wrestler against a boxer, except who you’re seeing who’s the baddest man on the ice,” Heinisch says. “And the Canadians have a huge advantage. They grew up on skates. They have that balance. But you also have the American side of it, which is mainly better fighters, quicker hands, better boxing. So, people like Rosa or Kelleher.”
If this all sounds like we’ve died and gone to goon heaven, it’s because Heinisch — along with BKFC head David Feldman and Ice Wars founder Charlie Nama, who is as Canadian as they come — have made it that way. The rink is topsy-turvy.
Enforcers are in. Skilled players are out.
“These guys, the fighters, their first love was hockey fighting, so it was a perfect fit for them,” Heinisch says. “They saw it, they were in love with it. They jumped on board. They called me and we got ’em signed. So we’ve stacked the card, we’re signing people long-term. We plan on doing around six fights this year and then we’re looking at doing around 20 to 24 fights next year.”
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Not that the supervisors of Ice Wars hope to need them, but there will be three judges for each fight, as well. The criteria for scoring will be based on effective striking, effective aggressiveness, and control of the fighting area. Damage is a key factor. Control, too. The idea, just like in MMA, is to keep the judges strictly ornamental. The idea is for knockdowns, knockouts, and dudes scrambling on all fours for their teeth.
“We’re going to have blood on ice dropping,” Heinisch says. “Imagine getting knocked out cold on the ice. I mean, you’re going to see some crazy stuff just like at bare-knuckle. It’s going to be action packed.
“And I think the gambling is going to be insane. We’re making sure there aren’t any draws, never want the fight to go to a draw. So it’s going to be very appealing for people like gambling sites and stuff like that. It’s going to be exciting.”
Heinisch has seen some stuff in his day. He’s seen the inside of the Canary Islands’ prison and the colorless bricks of Riker’s Island, from back when he was a drug mule. He has seen incoming fists from UFC middleweight contenders, such as Nassourdine Imavov, Derek Brunson and Kelvin Gastelum. He walked away from active fighting when the concussions took their toll, but he says he is healthy and enjoying life at 36.
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Now he’s overseeing a new game in town, a fights-on-ice league that does away with nuisance of actual hockey. Can it work?
We’re about to find out.