The Montreal Canadiens picked Slovak forward Marcel Hossa 16th overall in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.
Despite some rather encouraging anecdotes from his brother Marian, who had already established himself as a star in the league, Marcel never developed into an impact player for the Habs.
Hossa scored 10 goals and nine assists in 59 games spread across three seasons, which eventually led to a trade to the New York Rangers in exchange for defenceman Garth Murray.
He would go on to play parts of four seasons in the NHL with the Rangers and the Arizona Coyotes, finishing his tenure in the league with 31 goals and 30 assists in 237 games.
But that was far from the end of his hockey career.
Hossa played eight seasons in the KHL, followed by stints in Slovakia, Czechia, and Sweden.
He officially hung up his skates in 2017-18, trading them for sneakers as he joined the Slovakian ball hockey team FBK AS Trenčín.
And now, it seems like his thirst for action has extended to another sport. However, it’s a much bigger leap than going from ice hockey to ball hockey.
Hossa participated in a boxing match on Monday against Slovakian Rapper ‘Momo’, a fight that resulted in a disqualification win for the former Hab.
According to Aftonbladet, the fight was a bloody affair, and neither fighter had a clear advantage. But as the referees separated the two at the end of the second round, Momo spat his mouthguard toward Hossa, resulting in a DQ for the rapper.
Hossa, 42, explained that winning the fight was encouraging, but he was mostly satisfied with himself for having stepped into the ring in the first place.
Unfortunately, we were not able to find any footage of the actual fight, but it must be said that the former Montreal Canadiens forward’s involvement with boxing is an unusual, if not impressive career change.
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