The tough part of mixed martial arts for former hockey enforcer Donald Brashear is the five-minute rounds.

"In hockey, shifts are 30 or 40 seconds, but this is a five-minute shift and then you rest for one minute," Brashear said Friday of his upcoming cage debut. "I had to gain a lot of endurance.

"But I train a lot. I'm a professional and I know what it takes. That's why I played (hockey) for 18 years."

Brashear's first MMA fight is set for Ringside 11 on June 4 at the Pepsi Colisee in Quebec City against fellow former hockey tough guy Martin Trempe.

The 39-year-old Brashear boxed three times as an amateur, but MMA is all new to the Quebec City-area product. He dropped the gloves 212 times in a 1,025-game NHL career from 1993 to 2010, when he also had 85 goals and 120 assists.

"I'm very excited," he said. "It feels a bit like my first game in the NHL."

Brashear only recently started training at a Quebec City gym and admits he has much to learn about a style of combat that is vastly different than trading punches on skates during a hockey game.

It should help that the 27-year-old Trempe is also fairly new to the sport, with an 0-2 MMA record so far.

"I'm not going against a guy with five years experience, so I'll try to use that to my advantage," added Brashear. "This is a discipline and you need time to get better at it.

"But I know a bit about fighting. I know about techniques. I have a gift for fighting and I have pros around me helping me. I'm pretty confident I can do it."

The first one could turn into a hockey fight in the ring, as Trempe's three-year Quebec Major Junior Hockey League record of one goal and 308 penalty minutes would attest.

Brashear's NHL career ended with the New York Rangers in 2009-10. He spent some time this season in the Ligue Nord-Americain de Hockey, a Quebec minor-pro circuit that highlights fighting.

He was looking for something new.

"I'm always ready for a new challenge," he said. "I was out of hockey for a while and was looking for something to challenge me.

"The hardest part about this is the cardio, and that there are so many disciplines -- kung fu, karate, wrestling, boxing. And you have to control them all to be a complete fighter."

The bout is on the undercard of a main event between middleweights Patrick (the Predator) Cote and Todd (Bulldog) Brown, who have both fought in the UFC.