Geekery: History Channel Adds MMA Style ‘Knight Fight’ to Lineup
Watch members of The Armored Combat League compete for a hefty purse in this new medieval combat show that features real plate armor, swords, and other weaponry.
Among their questionable programming about aliens and pawn shops, the channel has brought us several decent historical based reality and competition shows over the years – Forged in Fire, Knife or Death, Iron & Fire, and Master & Apprentice. Their newest aims to recreate the dangerous contests of medieval tournaments. The show takes some obvious cues from M-1 Global’s now defunct medieval combat league. It will feature folks that participate in The Armored Combat League – an established tournament group in the states that feeds into IMCF.
Real armour, real weapons, real fights and real people. Enter the world of Medieval Martial Arts, aka the Knight Fight Club, in this brand new exclusive series: Knight Fight. Presented by a team of experts, including WWE superstar and podcaster Christian Cage, each episode follows six competitors as they battle with axes, swords, shields and spears while wearing over 36 kgs of armour until only one knight stands. Normal people with normal lives forget their day jobs and become knights of battle in the full-contact Armoured Combat League (ACL). These knights are set to wage war as each episode features six new fighters who customise era-specific armour, garb and weaponry and engage in numerous battle rounds to see who has the skill, strength and aggression to win the Knight Fight.
Fighters will compete over the season in an elimination style tournament; the overall winner will take home $10k and a championship belt.
“The thing was the camaraderie to me that the guys had. I mean, they’re in there dealing out punishment and taking punishment, in between rounds they’re kind of shouting over to one each other from across the ring asking, as in, ‘Hey, good round?’ or, ‘You okay?’ or things like that. The sportsmanship, the camaraderie is what kind of, like you said, the brutality of it and the action and how much each competitor wanted to win, but at the end of it, they were all shaking hands, patting each other on the back and making sure they were all right.”
The ACL has been an interest of mine for while, and I’ve got more than a few friends that spend weekends at SCA events. I’m curious enough to tune in to the first episode.
Knight Fight premiers on The History Channel January 23 in the US and February 19th in the UK.
