Armored fighters with swords fill a Long Island City cage

Hundreds of spectators filled Melrose Ballroom in Long Island City on Sept. 17 to watch fighters in medieval-style armor come at each other with swords, shields and axes inside a cage built for mixed martial arts.

The Armored League is part combat sport and part role-play, and it sells itself with the line “Real Steel, Real Fighting, Real Damage.” Some in the crowd turned up in Old English garb.

Who actually fights in the Armored League

The combatants are not professional athletes. Russ Christmas, who competes as “Stormrider,” sells Christmas trees for a living. He won his bout against Josh Herz, known as “The Butcher,” but was left bloody and could not continue in the night’s elimination tournament. Christmas said medics advised him against going on, and that he is still recovering from two cracked ribs. Herz, his opponent, is a Brooklyn college student studying history.

A full kit can run close to 100 pounds. Jake Meddaugh, who fights as “Hercules,” stretched out flat on the floor before his match so he could slide into 90 pounds of steel, then worked himself upright and buckled the padded layers one at a time before picking up his chainmail coif and helmet. Scrapes, bruises and a broken tooth are what he has to show for it so far. “Pain doesn’t happen until the next day,” Meddaugh said.

Why the crowds keep growing in Queens and Brooklyn

Herz credits the mix of history, fantasy and full contact, naming Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones as the reference points that draw people in. “People of Bushwick and New York in general just really love the sport,” he said, adding that attendance has grown into the hundreds.

Backstage looks nothing like a mixed martial arts event. Instead of fighters taping their hands while coaches hover, a woman brought a hammer down again and again on a piece of padded armor a few feet away, making final adjustments before a fighter stepped out.