Orlando Weekly had the chance to visit the UCF-area training grounds for the Florida Fire Drakes, the premier buhurt team for the state of Florida, and interview team owner Cory Alexander, as well as some of the team members. Right away, Alexander made clear what the appeal of the sport is for him compared to other combat sports.
“It allows us to use a lot of disciplines of mixed martial arts and apply them in a unique way when we’re fighting,” Alexander said. “I trained out of the American Combat Club, and I was very interested in a sport that could combine my love for mixed martial arts with my appreciation for medieval history.”
Derived from the French word “béhourd,” which translates to “wallop,” buhurt is a full-contact combat sport that sees its participants using blunted steel weapons and mixed martial arts techniques to fight each other while wearing authentic suits of armor.
While there are different styles and time periods to choose from when selecting what armor will be worn into battle, the style of weapon that a fighter chooses must be consistent with said armor — at least within 50 years of the period the armor is emulating. That’s not to say that the armor and weapons are actually from these time periods, however. While they are made in the style of medieval armor, all of the armor and weapons that the Florida Fire Drakes use is hand-forged by modern blacksmiths. Acquiring and maintaining the equipment is but one of the unique challenges that Alexander deals with.
“All of the equipment is authentic, and both the logistics and cost of acquiring them, as well as maintaining them, are hurdles we face as we manage the team. However, one of the biggest challenges we face is showing people that this is a legitimate sport, and trying to address that stigma to get more and more people interested and involved in it,” Alexander said.
Despite these hardships, the benefits that the sport has had even in the day-to-day lives of the team members seems to make everything worth it. As Blaine Boone, one of the lead instructors on the team, said, “I think many young men dream about being a knight at some point growing up. This gives me a chance to live that dream out, in a way.”
Read more here: “Meet the Florida Fire Drakes, a team of Orlando athletes putting the ‘hurt’ in the medieval combat sport of buhurt”
