The Insane World Of Medieval MMA 

"Tell me how the grass tastes little man." Best quote, in my opinion

Seeing a man at arms with a coat of arms as the American flag is incredibly funny to me

I recently started doing buhurt (armored combat) and it’s the most exhilarating sport I’ve ever done. I’ve done fencing and larping, but wearing full plate armor and getting hit with heavy steel weapons is something else. It hurts like a mfr but it’s so much fun!

These are the people who would ACTUALLY survive a zombie apocolypse.

I have to respect anyone willing to step into a ring and fight a man or men with real metal weapons.

Buhurt/Armored Combat is not larp. Larp is Live Action Role Play, we do not role play, we suit up and we fight.

Wait that guy at the beginning is one of the founders of Historia Normannis, I've met and fought with him before! He's a great dude. I had no idea he was a meme now? :D

My brother-in-law is in the ACL!!! No I will not join. HAHAHA. He's tried to talk me into it multiple times, but's I'd rather watch, absolute madmen. He is a veteran, and this helps him in a lot of ways, so I do indeed respect that.

There is also the halfway point between Buhurt and Larping which is the SCA. Full contact, with rattan instead of steel. Still hurts if ya get hit, but with more stringent rules there are less major injuries in the SCA. And with more safety restrictions also comes a wider variety of available gear to get started, which can get people learning the swordsmanship at a much lower entry level.

I am happy to see buhurt getting more recognition. I am an active practitioner of buhurt (derived from French *behourd* which means to "wallop" or smack). As an FYI for all in the comments, yes it's expensive to get into but worth it IMO. I played hockey, rugby, did jiu jitsu, a brief stint in MMA and as an aging individual who has a penchant for violence, this is the best thing ever. Mister Resonant, LARP is a silly thing to me too, but there are some buhurt fighters who came from the pool noodle swinging virgins clubs, got some action, and they are as 'deadly' as one can get in armor. You nailed when you said people who didn't fit the mold of traditional sports. Black sheep in the atheletic realm. Additional information, most popular fights are the ground and pound type of fights, intense stuff. While those are the most popular fights for spectators, the more commonly practiced are first to fall, lose. Point based dueling is really crazy to watch. Like it's fencing with 50+ to 80+ pounds (don't know kilos) of armor. That point based dueling tends to be more popular with the highly skilled fighters as they like to really work on their movement. While it's easy to take jabs at us Americans, I feel compelled to let you know, a woman out of Colorado was a sword and shield national champion four years in a row and just recently became a world champion for the same "sword and board" duel. When the sport was more in it's infancy in the US, there were no weight or gender classes. As the popularity grows, there do tend to be gender divisions but not always. I believe with dueling however, there is almost never a gender division as the participants are more keen on contact and avoiding the oppenents strikes. Again, thank you for the exposure Res.

I wouldn't say that modern Buhurt evolved from LARP'ing or anything like that. It's more like taking LARP's + historical reeanactment + fight sports. Eastern and central Europe had a lot of medieval historical reenactment groups for many, many years. A lot of people from those groups also started "playing" with Bohurt ideas, because regular battle inscenizations weren't enough.

I'm a Filipino but I am one of those people who loves knights and medieval battles and stuff. If I were me, I would go for larping first then battle of the nations or medieval MMA.

I am a fighter in this sport in the New England area! Buhurt (or Armored Combat) is CRAZY fun and intense. Im actually friends with some of the people shown in this video in the battle of nations! Also the prices you cited for armor, while possible arent actually accurate. My armor was about 2k. Still crazy expensive but I know VERY few people who have spent more the 2 to 4k on their gear. The cheapest i've seen was about 1.5k. (This is citing ONE set of armor, obviously over a few years in the sport you might spend more than this). One other big thing is that almost all clubs either have spare armor or will lend new fighters armor to train or compete in while they get their own kit together! The sport is SUPER collaborative and supportive in my experience It also does not come from LARP, and while there is a lot of overlap with the larp community ( I love larp) they are distinct. It comes more directly from medieval tournaments.

I started with HEMA (historical fencing) in 2018 and last year with buhurt. Both are wounderfull sports with great teams. I'm so glad that you create a whole video about modern medieval fightin sports at your channel! And especially in the respectful and informed way you presented it!

I love that you tried to cover all of those styles, but you could try to differentiate better between them. SCA is not the same thing as LARP or Buhurt. Also larping can be quite intense, check out the Nordica battle on youtube for instance.

My friends and I did this back in 87. We called it: "concussion" We did have a few rules. No "nut shots" No attacking someone while their helmet was off. No throwing of ANYTHING in the eyes. We used football, hockey equipment and a mixture of handmade armor using carpet, ducktape and string. So much fun.

Awesome! I do remember in 2017 on such festival in Kyiv I saw crazy duel (1v1) and it was +33 C heat , under direct sun. Just imagine those fighters stamina! They were duelling for 35-40 minutes !

Why are you insinuating that there is something to laugh about? Is there anything more masculine than wielding a fucking steel plate armor weighing 40 kilograms and bashing people's heads in with 2 handed axes? I love it!

The US version you featured is called the SCA - it's halfway between foam LARP and steel-fighting. They use wood (rattan) sticks in those huge battles, and you can get away with plastic armor underneath a tabard as long as your head/neck, kidneys, and joints are properly protected. There are steel-fighting clubs in the US of course, and plenty of people in the SCA do both, or even all three things.

Buhurt fighter here. There is nothing that brings me more joy besides my wife than fighting my friends on the weekends and going to tournys and testing myself against the best fighters in the country

In my 20s [75 now] a group of us would spear fight for fun most weekends. It was quite vicious, but nothing like this, though we had no armour.

as someone who was hit in the leg with a blunt axe - it fucking hurts + it left a permanent indentation and scar. Also I agree with your point on the human need for combat. In Europe now we miss purpose and let other dictate what we do. Need to bring back our spirit

hema, sca and harnesfechten are also really cool stuff you could cover.

The Society for Creative Anachronism, an international medieval educational organization, has been at this sort of thing since *1966.* They use rattan for weapons, a sort of fibrous, tropical "wood" which, while solid and heavy, doesn't splinter (which would be dangerous!) when it breaks. And, yeah, it's exciting and exerting and a lot of fun. =^[.]^=

Please get with the community to talk over the finer points. Many misconceptions.

There was something called Unified Weapons Master that built high-tech armor for competitive gladiator fighting. It looked more like futuristic armor than medieval armor but they were to fight with blunt swords and other weapons. The armor had sensors that would register how hard the hits were and I think would even simulate the effect of the hits making it difficult for the wounded area to move. That was 10 years ago and I haven't heard anything about it since.

There are LARPs that follow similar rules to the more realistic combat, but are far cheaper and safer with foam weapons. The biggest in North America is Bicolline - 3000 person battles all in full armor.

That start was like straight out of KCD or Skyrim. Hilarious.

I need to get into this. I will larp as levy, with just a stick.

Ok, so back in a day I was a part of LARP\HEMA training. Average weight of armor ~ 20-30 kilos, the swords are dull, but still hurt like a bitch, slashes are allowed but pokes are not, especially hits to groin and joints. Hokey armor padding is used sometimes under the cloth. Funny enough there are more broken noses with LARP than HEMA. The 10.000 USD suit of armor is a titanium one and it is lighter, yet mostly they cost around 3-5K USD. Sometimes cheaper if you order it in Russia. Broken fingers and ribs are a normality. As for crowd - its mostly engineers, IT guys, smiths and sometimes middle management. Overall I don't regret getting into it, great people, great exercise and would totally advise everyone to search for such communities in their areas!

sick ... I love it!

You should check the Sletten or Trelleborg fights. It's viking style combat instead of medieval, and there are two versions, western viking style, which is a tapping game and the eastern style where you go into full chain mail and gamberson and bash people with dane axes and other viking weaponry.

I love this.

Good to see more people getting into the sport, great stuff writing and assembling it. Just wanted to say you showed SCA there a couple times there which is a different thing as a rule of thumb if the armour looks a little flimsy and they're fighting with sticks and most importantly stabbing then thats SCA and not buhurt. The armour although is expensive is not necessarily 10 grand an entry level harness (suit) can cost you as low as 2000. The rule confusion is understandable it comes from there being 3 main disciplines in buhurt: dueling, melee (or also buhurt confusingly) and pro fights. Dueling is for points with the weapon only melee is 3 points on contact on the floor and profight is points everwhere and you can usually win by KO or TKO. The pro in pro fight does not mean professional as almost noone does this for a living and the people that do are usually coaches. I assume by your accent your English and as pro fights are what interest you you should look up Saturday knight fights on Facebook which is the uk starting a profight league its early days but they're great to watch. Thanks again for the video great stuff.

I think the price entry has some nice side effect, you really have to be into this stuff and the result is super high intensity sport in overall.

In general new sports are so much more exciting, when people are still inovating tactics and finding out which work

You should do a video on HEMA it's so interesting and beautiful to watch

fascinating to get an idea of what a medieval knight on knight battle may have actually looked like!

Buhurt is not Larp, but it is addictive, the adrenaline rush of your first time in Armour is insane. I started 2½ years ago and love it.

Love the Chaos of Armored Combat!

I was there at the voyage north! Noticed the vid you've took from a friend. Should come join us! ;D

A friend of mine was doing this. He was fielding with a group called the New York Knights here in the U.S.

The battlefield, "The more *casual* versions"

Man i can imagine myself there swinging around an axe or naginata for a dozen minutes like crazy before taken down when i am gasping for breath

So a note about larp from someone who does HEMA, Buhurt and larp: Not all larps are the same/have the same focus. Some are basically HEMA but with (correctly weighted) foam versions of the weapons. The main difference is that you are trained *not* to take any dangerous strikes (no head shots, neck shots, some you can't do stabbing strikes etc), so it becomes more of an agility contest (in 1v1) or strategic contest (side v side) in how you move your troops across the field. There are also larps where the focus is on story telling and the fighting is just secondary to that (if there's any fighting at all), but those are not really combat larps and they're not intended to be seen as such. Final note: those "d&d" mechanics tend not to appear in the more combat-focused larps, which operate more on a points system (eg You can survive getting hit six times. If your opponent lands more than 6 hits on you, you're "dead" ).

Never gonna regret when I got in this sport! Best moments in my life ❤

The world of medieval combat is much richer than what many people may think and what you cover here. I, for example, am a fencer and reenactor, which basicaly means that on usualy public events I show how the medieval people dressed, lived and fought (tournaments and battles) with real blunted steel weapons. All is historical so many people do not even have metal armours and are hit by steel weapons. It is definitely not as violent as buhurt but it is still lot of fun and in the same time it can be oretty dangerous.

bro that opening clip, was the definition of disrespect 💀💀

I really hope to get into it someday.

I go on camps that are just like buhurt but with foam wooden weapons with just little bit of foam its probably toughest larp before buhurt as far as i know

10:21 - _"main audience... is computer nerds"_ I feel called out. lol

Come hang out in central California for the weekend. We can Buhurt by day, and Bannerlord by night. ⚔️ stoked to see you cover our sport! Cheers 👏

Notice how it doesn't look like it does in the movies. Crazy stuff.

I know you are mentioning Ukraine or Serbia, but the castle you show few times (0:55) is Czech Castle Landstejn.

i would LOVE if this went mainstream

I want to do this so badly but I don't think there's any teams (let alone academies) in Texas. That and it's pretty expensive.

The Knights that went to those tournaments did often die, don't think that they did not.

In 5 years you'll have to check if the suits of armor have humans in them or robots.

10:38 full plate of suit armor

10:13 THEY DO, most if not all have already been players!

I had a cahe match 2 weekends ago. I wanted to focus on scoring with sword strikes. My opponent was more of a grappler. Grappling wins these days. I had one throw, he had 3. I just got outscored on the ground

I really liked this video, and it's well-narrated as always. Cheers mr resonant

im joining up once i turn 18 next month for REAL

Petrik lost twice to Bohumil Masnicak from White Company in the UK. The second time Bohumil took his WMFC Super-heavyweight title which he still holds to this day. I appreciate the video giving Buhurt and medieval combat some exposure but there’s definitely a little outdated information in it

FINALLY you get to see what this sport is all about.

You should make a video going to one of the gyms and trying it out! Check out White Company, they are the best in the UK and placed 2nd at the BL World Cup in Prague in 2023. They train every Sunday from 10:30 in full steel and are based in Nottingham. There's also a tournament coming up in Rochdale, Greater Manchester on 20th June.

When i was a kid, my park was filled with larpers, my grandmother also told me that they were devil worshipers, little did she know they were just nerds role playing lol i picked up on this sport till i broke my wrist, fingers, and fractured my skull. Gotta love it lol

I still have scars from my days doing HEMA.

Saying theres no rules is untrue. They have to wear armor of a specific thickness, cant hit the back of the head, and most importantly no thrusting [stabbing]. Those are rules and without them the combat would be very different.

I never felt the allure of most common sports, never did them in school, didn't care about the Superbowl or world cup of anything, but once i found the IMCF world championship footage online from middle school, it quickly grabbed my attention and I lowkey wanted to do it. Unfortunately being 5'6" and 135lbs soaking wet is not exactly buhurt material. So i ended up in the SCA, no where near as intense but, for now, thats what imma stick with "For now." I'm still fucking stupid enough to wanna give it a shot. And by god i fucking will.

This is way better than WWE and UFC combined. It is just not as advertised by sports betting sites.

Its weird to see people I know personally in a random youtube video.

I pray we shall see this more in next coming years.

They actually had a tv show about this I don’t remember the year but it only ran one season. In America it was 5on5,3on3 & 1v1 it was great actually had people to fix their armor after each event I liked it but as i said it only ran one season they broke hands, noises etc guess it was to much for tv🤷🏼‍♂️

I really want to do this but I'm stuck all the in Vermont😢

Everyone has a plan until they get shield bashed in the face..

You can almost feel the warm, sunny afternoon, filled with rejoice as relish it can be, where a careless breeze ever so slightly and gently crossing the tips of your nostrils, slowly carries the seasonal odour of 300 perspirations, only to pile on top of their porcines wallowing heavenly feces.

Cmon lets bring back gladiator games in a coloseum

Is there an order of Teutonic style fighters?

0:04 Lol:):) Get out of my way!

Ok. I love it but quick correction. This fighting started back in 1969 with a group in California called the SCA which wanted to bring back the chivalry and romance of the middle ages. It became so popular that it spread all around the world and inspired the movie "Knightriders" 1981 by George Romero. The movement sparked the desire for more and more realistic combat until it spawned this. LARPing is an insult to everyone with a functional brain and do not associate it with this please.

Give me a movie like Creed or Southpaw but bro is training for MMMA, give it to me now i need to see it

Seems like a great thing to bring back, let men be men and let them fight.

Shield smashing to the head is 100% permanent brain damage. Those people are nuts

We do this because we at our core, we are animals, just because we walk upright and can talk and have critical thinking skills essential for advancing our species... doesnt mean we will abandon our basic instincts, every man loves a good fight. and hey we have to be somewhat safe in this day and age because people will cry otherwise lmao.

Many Hema people hate larp.

and then one day Mike Tyson beatup some dude , stole his armor , and entered thee arena for the first time 😮

It's called BUHURT!

Dana should have done the 1v1 medieval matches instead of slap

i hear that even some ex mariens are doing it and i think the battle of nations stop for some reason

I don’t want to fight but I want to be apart of this somehow (I need an excuse to dress up in medieval garb).

I found this sport because of the game Kingdom Come Deliverance and the RU-vid algorithm

Better than slap fighting... Wish UFC choosed this to support.

Buhurt fighter here! i've been doing the sport for about 9 years now. best sport ive ever gotten into. Buhurt is love! p.s any of you can join this sport.

why did it say serbia 2019 thou .. was it there then ?

Where do I enlist?

Every time I see American LARP I 100% understand why people think its cringe, pool noodles, and almost zero effort costumes and such, It's just D&D with extra steps. The other problem with LARP in general is that it attracts those with mental health issues, in some cases this is fine, its a social outlet for them so no issue, but I have issue with the schizophrenics and others who's condition can easily become violent. I would move on to real steel but I'm realistic in that 1 I cant afford it, and 2 I would end up with broken arms or similar way to quickly.

I feel like the overlap of (not to old to be pro-athleat) and (has £10,000s spair) is very small. Is it basicly a richkids upper class sport?

Chads.

Who does this appeal to? My guess would be hooligans. Especially nerdy, history, hooligans... Eh yeah, perhaps I am a bit of a hooligan as well...