Combination of martial arts and medieval armor in New York

World Today

Combination of martial arts and medieval armor in New York

What do you get if you combine martial arts fighting and medieval armor? Perhaps the most extreme sport around.

A group in New York regularly meets to playfully attack each other with axes, maces, clubs and hatchets.

CCTV’s Nick Harper reports.

 

In a Harlem basement, the battlefields of the Middle Ages are alive and fighting.

“Some people think it’s awesome, some people think I’m crazy,” Damion DiGrazia, Armored Combat League member, said. “But then my Dad thinks I’m going to die.”

DiGrazia is a management consultant at an investment bank. But on the weekends, he swaps his suit for a suit of armor and unleashes his inner warrior.

He was introduced to it through a friend.

The idea of New York chapter of the Armored Combat League, a sort of “Game of Thrones” meets “Fight Club,” is to knock the other team to the ground anyway you can. There are rules, but injuries are still common.

The fighters said, like many other sports, this one is really about the camaraderie.

But it’s not a cheap sport. Specially fitted suits of armor can cost up to $10,000 with weapons on top of that. So, if the violence doesn’t put you off, the costs just might.