Armored mixed martial arts combat — imagine a UFC cage match with dulled medieval swords and steel suits of armor — takes to the cage Friday night in a sold-out event in East Hollywood.
Yes, you read that right: This is knightly combat in the 21st century. But this isn’t a Ren Faire reenactment or a Medieval Times dinner show. Armored combat is unscripted, and fighters go full contact with weapons.
The event will be at the Ukrainian Cultural Center. It’s a collaboration and a battle between New York-based The Armored League and the LA Golden Knights, who bill themselves as “the premier SoCal-based team in the sport of armored combat.”
According to Armored League executive producer and head of communications Pedro Navarro, Friday’s matches are set to feature eight combatants in a tournament. Matches are fought one-on-one and go three rounds of one minute.
Though tickets are sold out, the event will be streaming on The Armored League’s TikTok, with video highlights to be posted later on their website. The pregame show starts at 7:30 p.m., and bouts are scheduled for 8 p.m.
Meet LA’s champion
You wouldn’t think weighing yourself down with an extra 40 to 70 pounds would be an advantage for a 54-year-old trying to compete in an octagon cage against another man half his age. But Ronin Sato told The LA Local that the steel suit of armor helps level the playing field, slowing his opponent down just as much, letting his decades of mixed martial arts experience and fitness build up for the winning blow from his sword, ax, plated knees or gauntlets.
“It’s the most fun martial arts sport I’ve ever done. And I’ve done a lot of different kinds. You get to swing a weapon at somebody’s head and not go to jail for it,” Sato said.
Sato is the reigning champion of armored medieval martial arts among light heavyweights (competitors under 205 pounds). He practiced Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, boxing and others before discovering modern armored combat on a History Channel show in 2021.
Sato, who said he has had broken ribs and a concussion from fighting in armored battles, said you have to see it to appreciate it.
“We try not to kill each other, but we try to hurt as hard as we can. The knees are full force, the sword strikes at full force, the punching is full force,” Sato explained.
Steel armor does bring a loss of sensation fighters have to adjust to, Sato said, because the armor limits the visual and sensory awareness traditional martial artists are used to relying on. Football and hockey players might be more accustomed to the situation with padding and helmets, as well as action going on all around them, especially in armored combat group fights, he said.
Anthony Rafes, vice president of The Armored League, told The LA Local that the league gets its suits of armor, which can cost between $3,000 and $5,000, from Ukraine.
“You have to wait six months, 12 months, but the greatest armorers are in Ukraine,” Rafes said. Recently, he was checking up on his primary sponsor and got an apology for a delay because his workers were caught up in the war.
“I was like, ‘Dude, I am so sorry, take your time, don’t even worry about it,'” Rafes said.
Sato, who won a silver medal at a 2023 event in Prague with an American team, said it’s possible to get used armor for $3,000 to start out, but then you have to factor in the padding, attire and weapon costs.
Both Rafes and Sato said some starting competitors share equipment.
The evolution of armored combat as a modern sport
Rafes said that talks have been going on since the start of the summer to have the two teams face off in California as they make a coast-to-coast alliance to grow the sport.
Sato’s LA Golden Knights competed in New York in July, and he made it to the semifinals in front of a sold-out crowd.
The Armored League’s first event, in New York City’s Chinatown in 2024, drew only 100 people. Rafes said that number has grown substantially. They’ve had as many as 1,100 in attendance at the LGBTQ+ nightclub 3 Dollar Bill in Brooklyn. About 750 attendees are expected Friday in East Hollywood.
Modern medieval combat recreation traces its roots to California, where 1960s hobbyists fought in body armor using rattan weapons, according to the Society for Creative Anachronism.
Modern armored combat using steel weapons, also known as buhurt, developed in Eastern Europe in the late 1990s and frequently features large-scale group melees.
The sport gradually grew and spread to America and abroad in the 2010s and took another form similar to modern MMA-style octagon cage bouts.
