Back in August 2014, M-1 Global hosted an event in St. Petersburg, Russia that pitted some of the top talent in the region, as well as the country's first professional armored knight fight at an MMA event. Following positive response from the crowd in attendance, the promotion has decided to launch the ‘M-1 Medieval' project, which is an offshoot of M-1 that will feature professional fights between armored knights.

According to M-1 officials, the sport will entail two fighters who "wear armor of medieval warriors and use replicas of ancient swords with blunt razor to fight each other." The official date for the start of the project is yet to be revealed.

The first knight fight, which took place at M-1 Challenge 50: Battle on Neva, featured five-time World Champion Sergei Ukolov against America's Michael Ivey. Ukolov was awarded the victory. This was followed by two more knight fights at the following event, which took place in the mountainous terrains of Ingushetia. Ukolov was present and earned his second victory over Maxim Plaksin.

While it has been several months since M-1 Global hosted a knight fight, it appears the promotion is interested in adding several of these ‘medieval' fights in some of their upcoming events.

GIF courtesy of @GrabakaHitman.