Full-contact hand-to-hand combat競技・連盟管理

Armored combat or buhurt (from Old French béhourd: "joust", "tournament") or medieval combat or historical medieval battles (HMB), among other names, is a modern full contact fighting sport with steel blunt weapons characteristic of the Middle Ages. Fighters are covered in full modern-produced protective armour, made from steel or titanium alloy, made to aesthetically be close to their historical counterparts with modern protection techniques. Hits and blows may be aimed at any parts of the body (with the limitations set in the regulations); both wrestling and percussive techniques are permitted, thrusts are forbidden. Unlike staged battles, that can be seen at festivals of historical reenactment of the Middle Ages armored combat is a competive full contact international sport with many long running national and international tournament series.

As of 2026, the current active international governing bodies are Buhurt International (BI), International Medieval Combat Federation (IMCF), Magna Carta, and Alianza Latinoamericana de Combate Medieval. There are national governing bodies in 30+ countries predominately in the Western world and Latin america with some popularity in Asia, such as China and Japan. Popular US fight promotions and leagues, are Armored MMA, Armored Combat Sports, and Armored Combat Worldwide.

Armored combat as a modern sport began in the 1960s when a group of hobbyists in Berkeley, California, hosted a tournament in their backyard, leading to the creation of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). SCA would create SCA armoured combat with the first tournaments held in 1966. SCA armoured combat would use historically accurate armor in mock combat using rattan based weapons.

The first tournaments armored combat, also referred to as buhurt, commonly became distinct from SCA armoured combat date back to the first large-scale battles with the use of steel weapons, which were held in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in the late 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, at times when in the rest of the Eastern European countries reenactors used wooden or textolite weapons. An example is the festival "Zhelezny Grad" (Iron Town) held in Izborsk, where buhurts involving hundreds of fighters took place or Sword of Russia tournament from 1996.

The first European Championship took place in Ukraine in 2005, with nominations "Sword and Shield", and "Sword vs Sword".

The expansion of buhurt as a sport truly began in 2009 after the first held Battle of the Nations in Khotyn Fortress in Ukraine, where participants from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia competed under unified rules and regulations. The organizers of the Battle of Nations formed an international governing body called Historical Medieval Battles (HMB). This event attracted participants from the rest of Europe and outside of it and buhurt gained worldwide attention from the reenactment community. Battle of the Nations was held every other year at a new fortress or castle. The popularity of buhurt grew in the United States in the 2010s. One such organization, Armored Combat League (which split in 2019, creating Armored Combat Worldwide and Armored Combat Sports) was featured in a series called Knight Fight on History Channel.

Due to accusations of corruption, cheating, and unsafe practices from the Russia controlled HMB, and other grievances, various members of buhurt national organizations, spearheaded by US, Poland, UK, broke away, forming a new rival governing body, called International Medieval Combat Federation (IMCF), founded in 2013.

In 2015 the Russian mixed martial arts promotion M-1 Global began running outrance fights, calling it Russian medieval MMA, creating a small long running competitive circuit.

In 2022, Battle of Nations canceled their tournament series and later dissolved due to the Russo-Ukrainian war. Due to concerns about HMB International's Russian controlled governance, national governing bodied voted to dissolve HMB, with most later forming Buhurt League, which would later evolve into Buhurt International (BI), which became the primary international governing body for armored combat. In the United States, Medieval Combat USA (MCUSA) became the official national representative of Buhurt International. Alianza Latinoamericana De Combate Medivieval is the primary international governing body for Latin America.

In 2022, the fight promotion Armored MMA (AMMA) was formed. Armored MMA organizes outrance fights in an MMA style octagon cage match as well as promotes and broadcasts fights more similar to traditional pro martial art fights, attracting spectators in person and online, with various matches and clips going viral, helping to draw attention and grow the sport.

In 2024 the HMB Russian national governing body after having been alienated from the rest of the international armored combat community, created a replacement for Battle of Nations, an ongoing tournament series called HMB Russia Fest in Vyborg, Russia, attended by Russian and allied athletes, in addition to creating a new international governing body called Magna Carta founded and controlled by the former Russian owners of the dissolved HMB.

Armored combat, like any other sport, has several categories. All its categories can be divided into mass and singles.

Single categories, namely "one vs one" are divided into tournaments and professional fights.

Points / hits are counted in one on one tournaments known as duels. A fighter must score the most points to win, this is usually done in rounds of one minute with points scored based on striking. The duels categories are divided into:

"Sword and shield" fighters use a sword and shield in two rounds of one minute, with an extra round of thirty seconds if the result of the first two rounds is a draw. A strike to the head or torso is worth two points with the rest of the body worth one point. At the end of the rounds the fighter with the most points is declared the winner.

"Sword an