I am on the fence about 'fighting' in Hockey, the MMA and Boxing comprasions are silly though, those are sports where everyone is training to fight, agreed to fight, the techniques of fighting, etc...everything about it is related to fighting, from the ring/cage, the mat, the refs expertise and so on, so throw those out the window
Hockey should be about Hockey, but from the history of the sport and the nature of it, fighting is sometimes 'needed', they police themselves and I dig that, one of my issues would be some of the guys are not fighters, but I know they usually are protected, so thats not huge, but the main gripe would be that it isnt a good enviroment for fighting, being on a surface like ice, having jerseys on and wearing skates makes it somewhat silly, but whatever, thats the way all these guys grew up
I think the cheap hits and the sticks to the head/face are bigger deals than some bad brawling, there is a reason MMA is big in Canada, they like there fighting