MMA with Medieval Armor and Blunt Weapons

oh that hurts he is in pain this winter we stumbled upon a multi-purpose gym in new jersey where people were dressing in medieval armor and smashing each other with blunt weapons we were lured in by the spectacle but the scene beyond it was also really interesting when we found out these knights were training for a world championship in portugal where they would compete against other nations we immediately booked our tickets to join we are the international medieval combat federation world championships yes that is a thing it's essentially a renaissance fair but at the center there is actual medieval combat with real weapons and real armor men and women fighting not to the death just until they fall over [Music] check out the medieval broadcast the international medieval combat federation consists of hundreds of fighters from 26 countries around the world each year teams gather at a castle somewhere in europe to engage in melees and one-on-one competition the event is steeped in medieval history which makes the us team stick out from the crowd a bit despite their best efforts so right now in the cage behind us uh one of the american long sword men is actually a captain in the u.s military he's about to fight right now my mom was an english teacher when i grew up right she'd bring home books you know we'd read books together and it was always like medieval nights and stuff so i was running around playing with swords since i was a kid the first time i did melees too as you'll see later like everything i ever experienced in like high school football and fencing it was just it was that next level it was that next adrenaline i guess phase you can get to and just i don't know you leave feeling so refreshed and just so i can't believe i did this it's amazing i'm an officer in the army my job isn't to be the trigger puller my job is to think and plan and and lead really so to be here and not have to do any of that it's not stressful it's my release from training for actual awards to come do fake war hey cheers [Music] do so what are you waiting for right now 16 on 16 16 on 16. it's my favorite event because this one feels the most like a real battle yeah just the more bodies on the field the more the actual strategy for the numbers tends to factor in the more chaos you get it's just great what do you do in real life real life i'm a high school history teacher oh really yeah your students know you're here so what are you guys gonna fight in today what's your schedule today will be the five on fives uh so we uh face germany what is the five on five like a five versus five i call it a dog fight because it's not as chaotic or as crowded as a 16 versus a 16 or 10 versus 10. it's more violent i think i like it i like it because there's just more violence in the fives what's your fighting style uh nerd rage nerd rick yeah [Music] one of the things that happens in a helmet is you're breathing in your own co2 a little sensor in your brain will go off saying i got low oxygen levels and so your your body and your brain will start going hey you're gonna die whatever it is you're doing you need to stop it and so you start you'll see guys sometimes lose their and they'll run around like clawing at their face trying to get their helmet off and they're like running around in circles and they're so uh irrational they can't even they're not even thinking to even pull their own helmet off but what will awaken you the most is when you get a spark that flies into your helmet and you get the smell of ozone it just completely fills your your helmet it's it's it's exciting because you know something real just happened to flash before your eyes i get a little excited actually when that happens oh how is your nose not broken you never really have enough of that the lifelong of nerd rage to deal with you know you can never have enough therapy you never have enough there see look at my smile it's a real one no you're glowing right now right now this is glow emanating from you right behind me with the battle axe is janil she's the gold medalist in the polearm she's on her honeymoon and they just changed their last name the ironside [Applause] so you compete with your husband right and this is your honeymoon this is our honeymoon how long has this been planned we got married in february and then this has been our honeymoon how does it feel watching her fight oh it's annoying so i want to go out there and like do this do this and i can't i can't the reason why we chose it is we met by fighting each other in a tournament so he had been fighting for three months i had been fighting for three years and it was with my favorite style which is actually longsword he made a big mistake big swing and a miss i was able to dodge and i hit him right in the face [Music] [Applause] it's been two on one for like five [Applause] minutes [Music] how you doing champ so tiring i'm like just go down already let's walk on this line [Music] if we beat france we fight one fight not one around one fight and the winner of that fight takes it all so that means you give your best effort blow it out blow it up get it over with quickly and let's go to the finals the united states got to fight their 16 on 16 melee the second round robin actually this guy had his foot possibly broken yesterday so stephen cumby is stepping in his first ever melee [Music] why are you counting that's gold baby we win i mean that was a street fight it was crazy it's always good when you nail somebody so hard they smash your face into the rail with their whole body weight do you know what this is oh my god it's just that peaky i can't do much with this sense it's probably like a micro fracture right here you have to believe it do you believe it yeah do you believe it believe it so this is the finals of the five on five english and versus usa [Applause] is that if you make one mistake that's 20 of your workforce [Applause] it's always a drag to be the first loser second place yeah but it's still satisfying you can see the sportsmanship out here and that's what makes it special so the usa is getting ready for their 16 versus 16 gold medal match it is by far the most exciting event that you have here it is just an all-out street fight it's insane so the united states style they have a formation where they pinch at the flanks trying to entice the team to come into the middle and if anyone's actually dumb enough to venture into the middle they quickly envelop them to isolate them so that they can knock them down [Applause] so the u.s won the gold they absolutely dominated how you feeling good congrats thanks congrats i told you the six teams it's chaos [Applause] all the official events are over and they end with a 30 on 30 melee i think that the renaissance fair around the event all the period garb it makes you think that this is an activity but when you watch this it is absolutely a sport people are leaving with serious injuries and when you watch these matches there's more drama packed in a round of these than you'd be lucky to see in a basketball game or a baseball game i think that that's the most exciting part of this event in a minute you might have more drama than you can get in any other sport [Music] you

Channel: VICE Sports

Views: 4,757,878

Rating: 4.8847184 out of 5

Keywords: VICE Sports, athletes after the fact, offday, on the cusp, rivals, world of sports, sports, sideliners, future stars, documentary, documentaries, interview, interviews, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, funny, funny videos, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice news, vbs.tv, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, armored, combat, league, Knights, medieval, swords, armor, castle

Id: IkDDBL7jNew

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 17 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/grenerd]

What's your style?
` - Oh, just nerd rage.

[u/kalifornia_love]

This is the kind of sport I sub for! Holy shit that was awesome.

[u/Noughiphiet]

If you want full scale.. then Pennsic War in Pennsylvania is where you want to be every year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULb9tk4x9O8

[u/WiiWynn]

The host nailed it.

Yes, it's a thing.

[u/devotedpupa]

If you want more precision and technique, less mindless flailing and brawling, there's stuff like this Historical European Martial Arts saber tournament.

Too me its the middle ground of MMA with armor and Kendo's "No one actually fought like this, but there's technique" style, with an emphasis on realism.

[u/TheJuiceDid911]

So, if your weapons are blunt, why the fuck are so few people using actual maces?

I saw a guy punching another rather than using his axe. Once you stop using your weapon due to it being ineffective, maybe you should reconsider what you're using.

Also, if the while point is just knocking people over, why use swords and whatnot at all? Just throw a 260 pound wrestler into full plate and get him to do his thing.

[u/Sqeaky]

Fucking Savage!

[u/contraigon]

As someone with a passion for swords and sword fighting, this made me tingle with excitement.

[u/theCheeseCap]

Are you eliminated once you fall down?