For Thrashers, boxing has lots of benefits

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

You’ve heard the one about the guy that went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out.

For Thrashers, Eric Boulton and Chris Thorburn, it’s not just a joke. Their off-season workouts have been as much about punches as punchlines. The two forwards have been working with a boxing instructor to prepare for the start of training camp next month.

It’s a good workout. But it also pays dividends, in the remote possibility should a situation ever, ever come to on-ice fisticuffs.

“Hockey fighting is a lot different [than boxing],” said Boulton, the team’s foremost pugilist. “But it helps with combinations. You don’t get a lot of combinations in a hockey fight, but it does happen.

“The biggest thing is confidence. Confidence is huge. Going in, if you know you can knock someone’s head off, that’s huge in a hockey fight.”

Last year, the pair worked with instructor Amir Dadovic three times a week at a local gym. This year, they are training twice a week at the Thrashers’ Duluth practice facility.

Boulton said his lungs burn when he’s done with the workout. Thorburn said his shoulders ache.

“The conditioning is unbelievable,” Boulton said. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Fitness is one thing; fighting is another.

“I do it for my role,” said Boulton, who more than once has squared off against an opponent’s enforcer.

Training with a boxing instructor is not new in the NHL. Boulton said several players currently do it. He also said he did similar training when he played for Buffalo.

Minnesota forward Derek Boogaard ran a fighting camp two years ago for younger players. Its primary intention was to instruct less experienced players how to protect themselves, according to a Wild spokesperson.

In the Thrashers’ training sessions, Boulton and Thorburn, their bodies rigged with tension bands, work combination after combination against Dadovic, who catches their shots with padded gloves. It promotes two things essential in a hockey fight.

“What we really want to do is improve punch power and punch speed,” Thorburn said. “Knowing that you worked on those things really helps.”

Boulton: “What works, works.”

Dadovic instructs how best to deliver a blow, starting from the legs, to the hips and then through the arm. He teaches them to keep their elbows in, so an opponent can’t see the punch coming. He preaches the importance of landing a blow with the knuckles, to better avoid a broken hand.

“It’s not strictly like a boxer but you apply it to get more speed and more power,” said Dadovic, a mixed martial arts fighter who trains with American Top Team Atlanta. “Sometimes a fight is not about who is bigger and stronger. It’s about who is the first to punch. It has to be fast and strong.”

According to the Web site hockeyfights.com, Boulton had 16 fights last season, 16th most in the NHL. According to fan voting, he had a 5-5 record with four draws and two no decisions. Thorburn had 12 fights according to the same site with a record of 1-5 with six draws.

The tutorials continue. The best way to win a hockey fight, in the meantime, is not to get hit.

“We also work on defense. I’m not very good at defense, so anything helps,” Thorburn joked about his prowess.

Training sessions often included live sparring — with each other, with other boxers or even Dadovic.

“They would bleed and bruise,” Dadovic said. “They didn’t care. They are tough guys. That’s why I like working with them.”

Well, maybe they cared a little.

“I was so bad defensively, I had to quit [sparring],” Thorburn said. “I was going to get a concussion or get killed.”