{"id":295024,"date":"2025-11-20T07:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T07:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295024\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T07:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T07:57:15","slug":"the-sport-that-combines-medieval-armour-and-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/295024\/","title":{"rendered":"The sport that combines medieval armour and MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Armoured mixed martial arts sees teams of up to 30 fight using medieval weapons<\/p>\n

“Most people know what MMA is. It’s like that but in medieval armour using medieval weapons.”<\/p>\n

Daniel Winter started armoured MMA 12 years ago when a friend told him about “the craziest sport ever” and he is now captain of Team GB, having fought in more than 100 tournaments.<\/p>\n

The sport sees a group of fighters dress head-to-toe in armour, before punching, wrestling and hitting each other with sticks.<\/p>\n

Daniel runs Armoured Martial Arts Nottingham, which offers sessions to people from beginner level and is home to White Company, a performance squad which has had international success.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Daniel Winter is the captain for Team GB and has fought in more than 100 tournaments<\/p>\n

“Pretty much every boy wanted a suit of armour,” Daniel said.<\/p>\n

“To actually wear it and, not just that, get to use it and get to experience what it’s like to fight in armour is amazing.”<\/p>\n

He started out in a borrowed suit of armour, running training sessions on a farm outside Nottingham.<\/p>\n

Daniel said he met other fighters and they began competing at international tournaments.<\/p>\n

“We were winning, we were doing really well and we decided ‘you know what, let’s see how far we can take this’,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/p>\n

Many fighters buy their armour from Poland and Ukraine<\/p>\n

White Company are now the world champions and some fighters have also won individual honours.<\/p>\n

They have competed globally, most recently in France, the US and Italy.<\/p>\n

There are one-on-one bouts but also team matches with up to 30 people on each side.<\/p>\n

“It’s MMA meets rugby but in armour. We’re running around, we’re throwing people to the floor and we fight until one whole team is done,” Daniel said.<\/p>\n

In the team matches, fighters are eliminated once they are thrown to the ground, whereas in the one-on-one battles, the fight continues on the ground.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jenny H\u00e4bry has recently coached fighters in Brazil and Germany<\/p>\n

Jenny H\u00e4bry is a three-time world champion who took up the sport after moving to the UK from Germany.<\/p>\n

She is undefeated in the one-on-one category and has now started coaching internationally.<\/p>\n

“My family is back home in Germany but my team is my family,” Jenny said.<\/p>\n

“Having them all here and combining them with the cling-clang of violence is kind of like the right recipe for myself.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fighters practice sparring in armour but also wear softer kit for some sessions<\/p>\n

As well as being the base for White Company, the gym in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, also hosts classes for different levels, including beginners.<\/p>\n

Paris Labouch and Felix Gourlay saw people fighting in armour at an event at Sherwood Forest.<\/p>\n

“I thought it looked like the sickest thing in the world,” Paris said.<\/p>\n

“It’s the most fun way I’ve found to get into fitness.”<\/p>\n

The couple have now been training in the sport for around three months.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Cai Robinson has been competing with White Company for about three years<\/p>\n

Cai Robinson said he had moved to Nottingham from Chichester so that he can train at the gym more often.<\/p>\n

He is no stranger to rough sports, having broken his nose and both wrists playing ice hockey.<\/p>\n

“We are covered, it is real armour,” Cai said.<\/p>\n

“Yes, we’re getting hit hard but it’s not as brutal as it looks.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC Armoured mixed martial arts sees teams of up to 30 fight using medieval weapons “Most people know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-295024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}