The Battle of the Hockey Gladiators was held over the weekend. For full results, click here. I have not written anything on this because I have been collecting thoughts, but like Deep throat, it is time for the silence to break.
When this tourney was first announced, I thought it would be a great idea. Who wouldn’t want to see the top enforcers in the world battle it out for supremacy? I was thinking I’d head to Minnesota and see the event first hand. Well, over the ensuing months, this project had more problems than you could shake a stick at. They lost buildings, fighters, and along the way the lost my interest as well. From what I understand, one of the reasons the organizers were losing building permits, is because local officials didn’t want a bunch of drunks watching guys slug it out, and then trying to slug it out themselves. A legitimate concern, but what is the difference between a boxing match, or a kickboxing event? Why more concern over hockey fights? Promoters said, "Nah, you got nothing to worry about, we’ll be well behaved." I had hoped they were right, and they didn’t give people that are against hockey fights, any ammunition to throw at us goon loving bunch.
From what I understand, about 2,000 people showed for the event in an arena that holds about 6,000. Link Gaetz, the favorite to win it all, was handed his lunch in the first round. After the event was over, apparently fights broke out all over the arena. The web cast didn’t work properly either, as it kept freezing up. The combatants were required to wear gloves, and helmets had to stay on. Doesn’t sound like much of a "hockey" fight to me.
It sounds to me like this event, from start to finish, was a joke. I love a good hockey fight as much as the next guy, but to me, a fight is when two guys square off, drop their gloves, and have at it. It isn’t two guys in a controlled area of ice, wearing gloves, slugging it out for two minutes. That is a street fight on ice, and if I wanted to watch that, I’d go rent an UFC video. I am not a prude when it comes to violence in hockey, it is the violence and speed that attracts me to it, I just don’t want an event like this to come back and haunt the game of hockey. I don’t want some yahoo to point to an "event" like the Gladiators, with its poor on ice product, and bad behavior in the stands, as a reason for fighting to be banned forever. Fighting is already dying off, and with the new CBA in the NHL, I feel it will all but be eliminated very soon. There may be nothing us fight fans can do or say about it, but let’s not let the people that drive fights from our beloved game point to the Gladiators as the reason why.
I have to ask what the appeal of the fight is. I mean, I understand that it arouses the moment, but what about good sportsmenship? I dont know, maybe Im being too much of a girl. Haha.. go to associatedcontent.com, they have a load of good sports articles. (Maybe thatll redeem my girlish statement)
Fighting is done to promote good sportsmanship in some cases. It is a means to keep both teams honest, and within the rules. When it is a case of two guys just slugging it out, it is not an unsportsmanlike thing to do, as it isn’t a big goon picking on a non goon. There is a honor code among the guys that do this.