Ice Wars president, AJ Galante, is excited to bring his new combat sport to Enoch, Alta. this Saturday for the organization’s inaugural event. Supplied Photo
A new combat sport is coming to the River Cree Resort and Casino in Enoch, Alta. and will feature some of the toughest players in the sport of hockey.
One of them will be Travis Levitsky from Lloydminster.
Here’s the catch: there is no hockey involved.
Welcome to Ice Wars, a combat sport that’s being dubbed as prize fighting on ice.
This Saturday, for the sport’s inaugural event, eight fighters will compete in a Heavyweight King of The Rink Tournament. Each bout is two one-minute rounds with a one-minute break in between. There will also be a 30 second ‘ice breaker’ overtime round in the case of a draw.
“This is our first event and we have some pretty big boys competing,” said Ice Wars president, AJ Galante, from his home in Danbury, Connecticut. “We’ve got eight heavyweights and it’s single elimination.
“We’ve got some monsters, man. Travis Levitsky is coming to fight from Lloyd. He’s 320 something pounds and should be fun to watch. It’s going to be fun, it’s going to be exciting, and hey, you never forget your first.”
If the name AJ Galante rings a bell, it’s likely because he was featured in the 2021 Netflix documentary ‘Untold: Crimes and Penalties.’
The documentary tells the tale of the Danbury Trashers, a professional hockey team playing out of the United Hockey League (UHL).
The team was purchased by Galante’s father, Jimmy, who then made his son the team’s general manager after an injury put an end to his high school hockey career.
The team quickly gained the reputation of being the bad boys of hockey and Galante himself coined the team the “Evil Empire of the UHL.”
After two seasons the team folded when the elder Galante was charged with 72 various charges, including racketeering.
One of the charges that pertained directly to the Trashers was wire fraud, which resulted from the interstate faxing of fraudulent salary cap documents.
Following his career as a hockey GM, Galante opened his own boxing gym and has been keeping busy training fighters since then.
“It’s been a whirlwind ever since that documentary came out,” he said.
“Back in 2006 this concept was done in Prince George B.C. and it was called the Battle of the Hockey Enforcers. At the time they had some of the toughest enforcers in the world battling it out.
“I had no part in that, but a few months after the documentary came out one of the promoters from that ’06 show contacted me looking to bring it back. He brought my father and I into the fold and let me run with this, and we rebranded it as Ice Wars.”
After hockey, Galante got involved in professional boxing for a decade and he explained now that he’s turned Ice Wars into a reality, “it’s like all of my loves are mashed into one again.”
At first, one thing Galante was concerned about was fighter recruitment, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem after all.
“We ended up having a waiting list for guys wanting to fight,” he said.
Galante also noted Ice Wars purchased 1,000 sq. ft. of synthetic ice so they can bring the event to any location.
Tickets for Ice Wars start at $65 for live viewing at the casino, and the Fite TV live stream is available at iwifights.com for only $20.
