Mark Stefanos
MMA met GoT at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in East Hollywood last Friday, Sept. 4, for the West Coast debut of The Armored League — a full-contact combat sport where fighters decked in armor beat each other with medieval steel.
A sell-out 800-person crowd, many dressed in their Ren Faire-best, filled the room with deafening roars as the fighters bashed their opponents’ body and heads with real (albeit blunted) weapons like swords, axes, polearms combined with shields and hand-to-hand punches, kicks, elbows, knees and headbutts, takedowns and knockdowns. This isn’t Medieval Times — the fighting isn’t scripted, and the clanks are piercing.
TAL 21 culminated in an all-LA final. Nathaniel Gaston and Ronin Sato, both members of the local armored-combat community, survived the tournament to meet in the championship bout. Gaston ultimately took the win, adding an Armored League title and a cash prize to a resume that already includes work as a model and an MMA championship.
The Armored League at Ukrainian Cultural Center, Sept. 4, 2026. (Keeton Landfair Photography @keetonlandfair)
Fighters wear custom plates that commonly run 40 to 80 pounds and can cost $3,000 to $5,000 a suit, much of it commissioned from armorers in Ukraine. The armor absorbs a lot of the blows, but can still leave fighters with bruises, swells or worse.
Per the rules, bouts run three one-minute rounds, with championship fights going five and 30-second rounds breaking ties. Fighters score points through strikes, takedowns and knockdowns, with more impactful blows, head strikes and two-handed weapons worth more. Dropping a weapon doesn’t stop the fight, while repeated helmet failures can result in a TKO.
Anthony Rafes (COO) and Damion DiGrazia (CEO) founded The Armored League in New York City on Sept. 5, 2024, with Pedro Navarro and Scott Litts as co-founders. DiGrazia had already spent years developing armored combat in New York through Gladiators NYC, the free training program operated by his nonprofit Santa’s Knights — basement sessions in Harlem, free classes, exhibitions in parks and odd lots. TAL brought that grassroots combat community into a professional event format: they ran the lights, the ring, the cards, and the marketing themselves and grew the rooms as the crowds arrived.
Gaston declared victor. (Keeton Landfair Photography @keetonlandfair)
The first tournament on Nov. 1, 2024, was eight men in Chinatown for a thousand-dollar prize. About a hundred people showed up. Two years later the League has put fights into Astoria’s Melrose Ballroom, Brooklyn’s 3 Dollar Bill, New Jersey’s American Dream, Atlantic City, and Palladium Times Square, and it has started flying in names from Australia, Poland, France, Spain, England, Mexico, and across the U.S. with the goal of gathering the best fighters in the sport and pitting them against each other.
“You get elements of professional sports, you get elements of movies and fantasy, you get elements of history and culture. Everything I love,” Rafes tells LA Weekly. “This sport is easy to fall in love with — it’s going to be the biggest thing since UFC. It’s the fastest growing sport in the world with elements that appeal to all sorts of different people far beyond the audience of a typical UFC or combat event.”
“This is for everyone,” added Navarro. “When they pick up a sword — the young feel mature and the old feel youth.”
Rafes traveled to Los Angeles last year to attend a Golden Ring event, where his relationship with Sato led him to Jason Puerta, founder of Golden Ring and the local club LA Golden Knights. The connections eventually developed into a partnership and, ultimately, the Armored League’s first LA event.
The final was the cleanest possible advertisement for the partnership. Gaston and Sato are both Knights. They beat everyone else, then beat each other. The visiting league still got what it came for: a full house and a West Coast footprint.
“We love LA and the people of LA,” Rafes said. “It’s always great to align with great people and do something fun that benefits everyone. Jason, Ronin, and the Golden Knights supported us and are the reason The Armored League was able to put on such a fun and great event for everyone.”
Following the sellout at the Ukrainian Cultural Center, the League says it intends to return to LA with Golden Ring and is looking for a larger venue capable of accommodating a growing audience.
If the thought of competing in one of these tournaments gets you salivating, reach out to LA Golden Knights on Instagram and get to chopping.
Follow The Armored League on Instagram @thearmoredleague.