I would presume that this was some sort of Onion or Babylon Bee article if someone were to send it to me in a message but as it turns out this is actually true. Bare Knucke Boxing Championship is going to venture into "Ice Wars" where hockey game ice fights are the only star of the show.
I haven't watched a whole lot of ice hockey in my life, but the two games I went to go and see live were a lot of fun. I have to admit that one of the highlights of these two games was when the fights broke out on the ice. I have always been a bit intrigued about how the penalty for being in a fight are actually pretty relaxed. In virtually any other team sport, getting into a fight on the field, pitch, or whatever you are playing on would get you likely banned from playing in that sport for a while, but in hockey, you go and sit in the box for a little while, or as I have heard it called the "sin bin" and then you can come and play again.
You have to do something pretty damn egregious in professional ice-hockey to get banned it would appear.
It is exciting that is for sure. But for the most part the players are aware that this is part of the game and since they are hard as nails anyway, they are prepared for this, win or lose.
The best players in professional leagues, more often than not, are not great fighters. Even if you don't follow the sport you have likely heard of Wayne Gretzky and he was well-known for NOT getting into fights. In fact there was a lot of talk inside the league about how if someone did try to start a fight with the "great one" that he would be fought by his own teammates because there was a huge amount of respect for this wonderfully talented man and he was protected from everyone.
The one fight he got into that remains in the annuls of history was with Neal Broton, and Gretzky lost this fight badly
You can see how protected the man is because the officials were not going to allow this to continue. Brotsky ended up getting death threats from all sides including from his own fans and even teammates.
I'm getting off topic here and that is easy to do when you start talking about legends of any sport.
So BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship) is looking for a way to keep their brand relevant and they have decided to team up with little known "Ice Wars" league to create their own hockey style of fighting competition.
They are actually being very smart about this because the first event this June is going to consist of "teams" of people from the USA and Canada exclusively and given the sentiment that is going on between those two nations right now it should be a really good event... well, I mean, maybe, kinda.
The sport already exists, but it is kind of stupid and there's a reason why you have likely never heard of it. It isn't as simple as "get out there on the ice and fight!" but instead they have a few 90 second rounds with a 1 minute break between rounds. The two wear traditional ice-hockey clothes and skates but they also wear lightweight MMA gloves. Just like in real ice-hockey the idea is to go for the head because the rest of the body is pretty well-protected with some level of armor. Since both combatants are basically wearing knives for shoes, there won't be any kicking.
To me it seems rather boring but I guess I can appreciate BKFC taking advantage of the current political climate and deciding to make a bit of money off it. I wont be tuning into this but perhaps someone will, maybe if I happened to live in Mount Pleasant, Michigan - which is where the inaugural event is taking place - maybe then I would go just for the hell of it.