Medieval Combat Brought Back Through Buhurt
The sharp sound of steel striking steel echoes off the side of a hill every weekend at Culver City Park as the Los Angeles Golden Knights fight with real weapons and armor.
The sharp sound of steel striking steel echoes off the side of a hill every weekend at Culver City Park in Culver City, California. The noise comes from the Los Angeles Golden Knight’s weekend practices in full steel armor and dulled weapons as part of their chosen sport, buhurt, or armored combat. Buhurt is a full-contact fighting sport that uses gear historically accurate to the Middle Ages.
The sport dates back to the 1990s, beginning in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Teams, tournaments, and regulatory bodies came soon after. It spread to the United States in 2012 when a group of Americans went to Russia and fought for the first time as a US team. The LA Golden Knights is a local chapter founded in 2014.
“In our heads, we all have what we think a fighter looks like,” said Jason Puerta, the owner of the LA Golden Knights. “You see the guys that show up, they look like a normal person… People you don’t expect to be the toughest people, are the toughest people.”
Puerta also said that buhurt is an unpredictable sport because of the many different armor types and weapons. Different fighting styles and team sizes can range from duels to 30 v. 30 and non-tournament events upwards of 150 people per team. Generally, the goal in team battles is to eliminate members of the opposing team by making them fall to the ground. The team still standing in the end wins.
Duels are more complicated, and rules can vary. Commonly, the goal can be to get as many hits, or points, as possible, to get more points than an opponent, or to land a certain number of hits to win. Profight is a variation that has become increasingly popular as the sport has grown. It combines standard duels and mixed martial arts; fighters can use their weapons, punches, kicks, or throw opponents to the ground to gain more points.
Fighters choose the weapons and armor they will use, but marshals must do safety inspections to ensure compliance with regulations. Moreover, marshals watch fights to prevent hits to sensitive areas, like the back of the neck or back of the knee.
“You get an adrenaline rush, it's a primal thing almost,” said Angel Jauregui, a member of the LA Golden Knights. “Every time I get hit with a sword it is just a knock of reality.”
He got into buhurt with his girlfriend, Fry Batista, towards the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, but he has been watching the sport since his teens. He said that he keeps coming to practice because of the people and that it helped him keep going during a challenging period of his life.
“This sport is probably one of the better decisions I have made in my life,” said Jauregui. “This thing is so important to me.”
The LA Golden Knights helped to organize a set of profight matches titled Golden Ring II on December 16 in Burbank, and a crowd of roughly 100 people came to see the spectacle. The event featured twelve fighters, including Spencer “Seto” Waddell and William “Bam Bam” Woodbury, both high-level fighters, going head to head in a tense back-and-forth match.
The crowd cheered and shouted during each fight, and gave a standing ovation when Jauregui proposed to Batista after faking an injury in his match. Puerta described the event as a success, adding that Golden Ring III will be coming early in 2024 and that monthly events are coming soon. The event marked the start of LA Golden Knight’s winter break; team practices will start back up on January 6.
More information about the LA Golden Knights can be found at lagoldenknights.com/.
