THE GLOVES ARE BACK ON
Ex-Leafs enforcer Nathan Perrott, who has a somewhat safer day job, takes another shot at boxing at 40 with a passion for combat.
The last time he competed professionally, former Maple Leafs enforcer Nathan Perrott was pummeled by a husky Russian heavyweight named Artem Lipanov.
Perrott racked up 123 fighting majors in a pro hockey career spanning 10 seasons and five leagues, but the June 2010 loss to Lipanov didn’t happen on the ice. Instead, the firstround knockout occurred in the ring at Casino Rama, the lopsided loss appearing to end Perrott’s boxing career after just three fights.
But Perrott, who works as a firefighter at Bruce Power, says the seven intervening years haven’t dulled his passion for boxing. On May 19, he’ll make yet another comeback on a pro card at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre.
At 40, with an arthritic knee and a stable job, he realizes a long and lucrative ring career isn’t likely, but says he could no longer ignore an unquenched desire for competition and combat.
“It’s hard to explain in words,” says Perrott, who drives to London, Ont., for twice-weekly sparring sessions. “When you’re out there doing it, it just feels like home.”
Last month’s heavyweight title fight between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko drew 90,000 spectators to Wembley Stadium, prompting mainstream sports media to rethink the idea that boxing’s popularity is in terminal worldwide decline. The sport is also flourishing locally.
So far this year Ontario has hosted six live pro boxing cards, with five more already scheduled. Last year the province saw nine cards total, compared with eight in 2015 and six in 2014.
More events lead to more opportunities for local pros, and when injury felled the opponent scheduled to face Cambridge’s Bradley Hamil, Perrott stepped in. His bout takes place deep in the event’s undercard, but co-promoter Tyler Buxton says in an NHL-obsessed market, Perrott’s Maple Leafs past makes him a headliner who boosts ticket sales.
Perrott played 43 games with the Leafs between 2003 and 2006, and spent the 2004-05 lockout season with their farm team in St. John’s. The online database hockeyfights.com credits him with a career-high 29 fights that season.
“Every news editor in the GTA will cover the Leafs, whether they’re playing basketball, soccer or on the ice,” Buxton said. “(Perrott) wasn’t as big as the (NHL’s) legit heavyweights, but he was willing to fight anyone. That’s why he made a splash.”
Perrott won his pro debut in September 2009, earning a four-round decision over a heavyweight named Makidi Ku Nitima at Philadephia’s famed Blue Horizon fight club. But the former NHL tough guy lost his next two bouts by first-round TKO, highlighting the gap between boxing and hockey fighting.
“They both hurt,” Perrott said. “There’s no easy way to get punched in the face.”
Pro hockey players have long seen the on-ice value of pugilistic crosstraining. Former NHL enforcer Derek Boogaard, who died in 2011, spent summers training in a Saskatoon boxing gym, and Justin Abdelkader of the Detroit Red Wings also boxed in the off-season. Former journeyman pro Doug Smith didn’t start skating until age19, but parlayed skills gleaned as an amateur boxer into a career as a minorleague enforcer. Later he penned a memoir that formed the basis of the 2011 feature film Goon.
“I learned from boxing how to tune out the pain,” Smith said in a 2012 interview with Grantland. “I know how to take a punch, how to deflect a punch, and how to turn with a punch as it’s coming at my face. But you can’t duck away from all of them.”
While Perrott remains the first fullfledged NHLer to embrace pro boxing, longtime Quebec senior league enforcer Eric Martel Bahoeli has won 11 of 19 pro bouts. In October 2014 he challenged Canadian heavyweight champ Dillon Carman, losing in the seventh round of a sloppy but thrilling brawl broadcast live on TSN.
Carman hasn’t fought since December and was last spotted on the reality show Big Brother Canada, smoking cigarettes and sporting a hefty gut. Whether Carman is out of the sport or simply out of shape, Buxton says the dormant champ leaves a void Perrott could fill.
“If he can buckle down and get a few wins, a fight for a Canadian title would be a nice little feather in his cap,” Buxton said. That’s best-case scenario. In reality, Perrott has lost to journeymen several notches below Carman and Martel Bahoeli. Lipanov fought just once after his win over Perrott, a draw against a fighter who was 0-4-1.
Hamil, the 27-year-old Perrott will face next weekend, has a win and a loss as a pro.
Where Perrott served his fistic apprenticeship in bouts against NHL fighters such as Donald Brashear and Jody Shelley, Hamil trains under retired world title challenger Syd Vanderpool. As an amateur he won the Ontario Gold Gloves in 2014.
Crossing over to boxing means learning new skills Hamil already knows in detail, but Perrott says he has mastered the most fundamental aspect of the sport: fighting.
“There’s a lot more differences than similarities,” Perrott said. “But the thing I do like: two guys standing on their feet, throwing punches until one goes down. Then you have a winner.”
“They both hurt. There’s no easy way to get punched in the face.” FORMER LEAF NATHAN PERROTT COMPARING NHL FIGHTS TO BOXING