NHL’s heavyweight champion Mathieu Olivier goes after 5’9” Sabres player in ugly fight

It was a routine delayed penalty situation with the Buffalo Sabres net empty, but what happened next sparked outrage across the hockey world.

Mathieu Olivier, standing 6'2", tapped the puck into the vacant Buffalo net after the whistle had already blown. Zach Metsa, listed at just 5'9", took exception to the move and confronted Olivier. Rather than brushing it off, Olivier, also known as the league’s unofficial heavyweight champion, unleashed a barrage of punches at the significantly smaller Sabres player.

By all accounts, Olivier did not hold back.

What made the scene so jarring was the sheer size mismatch. Olivier is one of the tougher customers in the NHL, a player built for exactly these kinds of moments. Metsa, on the other hand, is not an enforcer by any stretch. The five-inch height difference was painfully obvious as fists flew.

To his credit, Metsa refused to back down. Despite being badly outsized, the Sabres defenseman stood his ground and kept engaging, earning him plenty of respect from Buffalo fans watching at home.

The reaction online was swift and largely one-sided. Many observers called Olivier's initial act of shooting the puck into the empty net after the whistle a bush league move, and then criticized him further for unloading on the smallest player on the ice when someone predictably took offense.

The fight was heated and, as you can imagine, the sequence has been going viral online since!