ICEBOX trophy goes to Sirokovs

22 Jun 2011 | Petr Polák

For the first time ever hockey though guys met face to face in the ring. Four hockey players took off the skates, left the sticks in the lockers and came to match their strengths. The first volume of the unique sports event took place in Riga, Latvia and Latvian Aleksejs Sirokovs took the victory.

From the start, the ICEBOX idea was a hard meeting of the best hockey-fighters from the best hockey leagues, but finally any one of the best was asked for his appearance. The promoters weren’t able to pay expensive health insurance that is a condition for the start of an NHL player.

For the first volume of the event, the crowds had to manage with one KHLer, Brandon Sugden who is playing for Vityaz Chekhov, the KHL team well-knowed for its roster equipped with many fighters. A few times Chekhov met the KHL’s disciplinary council for unsportsmanlike behavior and the council already gave an ultimatum that if Chekhov will play unsportsmanlike one more time, the team will be disqualified from KHL.

Kip Brennan was also on the roster of ICEBOX. The Canadian playing in AHL has lots of experience with tens of NHL fights from the past and in 2003 he was suspended for 10 games for returning to the ice surface after being ordered to the dressing room.

To the ring came one representative of Slovak hockey too. Rónald Petrovický is currently without a professional contract and probably it won’t change and he’ll retire because of his business interests in USA.

The last fighter was Aleksejs Sirokovs, a Latvia-native who ended last season in Czech Extraliga playing in Brno.

Originally, the event promised also Evgeni Artyukhin, a hard man well-known from WC 2011 in Slovakia for his really hard play. His excuse for pulling out of the tournament was a shoulder injury and he promised his appearance in the next year’s volume.

The fighters were seeded into the semifinal couples Sugden-Sirokovs and Brennan-Petrovický and the show could start.

Three round of no-defensive fighting brought a final advancement ticket for Sirokovs on points. In the first round of the second fight Petrovický knocked down Brennan, but he got over and won the fight after a technical knock-out in the second round.

The “bronze” game came later to Petrovický who was able to defeat Sugden, the victory of the tournament took Sirokovs from the Grand-finale. Sirokovs sent Brennan down twice but Brennan always got up and in the last minute he almost destroyed Sirokovs with hits, but after the bell Sirokovs was awarded the victory on points.

An interesting event promoted by a group of Latvian businessmen: Saulriets, Namnieks and Roitman could be a start of a tradition. The crowds in Arena Riga enjoyed the event maximally and they are looking forwards to the next volume.

The organizers could count with Artyukhin and probably also with another injured Latvian fighter Ivanans. It is possible that next year also the famous fighter MacIntyre could meet the ring if he will move to Podolsk for a KHL engagement.