June 2025 Fighter of the Month – Shanna Knight

NOTABLE WINS: Current 15-1 profight record across the different leagues (BI, IMCF, AMMA), including some notable wins against champions and legends in women’s profighting Gold Medal Carnage 2025 women’s lightweight profights Gold Medal AMCF Qualifiers 2024 women’s 5v5s Gold Medal Dragon Con 2024 women’s 5v5s Women’s MVP Pacific Cup 2024 Gold Medal Siege 2024 women’s 5v5s Gold Medal IMCF Worlds 2024 women’s lightweight profights, 3v3s, and 5v5s Numerous other gold medals in women’s melees stretching back many years

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TRAINING FOR ARMORED COMBAT?

Almost 9 years now

DO YOU HAVE ANY BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE IN MARTIAL ARTS OR OTHER SPORTS?

MMA, soccer, football, softball, track and field

HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT ARMORED COMBAT AND WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO JOIN?

I stumbled across a random YouTube video from Battle of the Nations. I thought, “huh, that’s a funny looking video game. Oh wait, that’s actual people… wow they’re really beating the crap out of each other… whoa, there’s a Team USA? Wait, there’s a women’s team??” I immediately Googled “how to join Battle of the Nations team USA,” and eventually found my way to the nearby team that would become my family – Iron Phoenix. I’d always loved team sports and played a lot of them growing up. I was in the Army at the time that I discovered armored combat and hadn’t gotten into a deployment like I’d hoped. I figured if I couldn’t fight in the Army, I’d go fight in armored combat. It was perfect. I was specifically enamored with the level of violence armor allows with minimal injury (compared to that same level of violence outside of armor, anyway). Being violent and really letting loose is fun, but you don’t want to like ACTUALLY hurt someone, ya know? The people I fight both with and against are some of the best people in my life and the camaraderie is the closest thing to military camaraderie, which I dearly miss.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT IN YOUR FIRST FIGHT? CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE EXPERIENCE?

I believe my first armored combat tournament was ITOC in the fall of 2016. We had women’s 3v3s with a bunch of OGs and legends who would become my future Team USA teammates. I was excited, nervous of course, and really wanted to make my mentor and Iron Phoenix brothers proud. The fights were few, but I fought hard and did well. I remember I was wearing a kit a friend helped me make in like 2 weeks after the original blacksmith making my kit fell through. Thank god competition wasn’t on the level then that it is now, I would’ve broken something for sure. At any rate, I had trained hard leading up to the tournament, and my mentor Aveloc had invested a lot of time into training my mentality and physicality, so I had a decent idea of what I was supposed to be doing. This was also when I discovered the joy of chaos in the midfield and the effectiveness of blind side takedowns. I had used a punch shield and falchion a bit at that tournament (yuck) but very quickly swapped to what I’m best known for – a two handed axe.

WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED WEAPON? DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR FAVORITE?

I prefer 2-handed axes in the women’s melees. While every axe I own has been a gift and has it’s own unique application and… personality if you will, my favorite would be the axe Aveloc made for me. Every so often, when I wear it out, I’ll send it back to Aveloc. He’ll rehaft it for me, imbue it with some sort of witchcrafty magic if you believe in that, and send it back. It comes back with a slightly different personality each time, but it always has a stained haft and a gorgeous, studded, crisscross leather-wrapped handle. The latest remakes have had a wicked back curve at the end of the handle for maximum striking force. Whenever Aveloc remakes it, he always names it for me too, based on the feel and spirit that comes to him when he crafts it. The current one is named Taipan and has a hand-drawn snakeskin pattern coiled around the haft. There’s no other like it in the sport.

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE SOME POSITIVE ASPECTS THAT COME FROM THE SPORT?

Well, fitness of course, direction, teammates who become brothers and sisters, purpose, drive, adventures of a lifetime, and the fulfillment of seeing hard work at training shine through on the field.

WHAT IS YOUR FIGHTING STYLE – IF YOU HAVE ONE?

While I’m probably most known for being a fast and powerful ambush striker, these days I’d describe my fighting style as highly adaptive. In melees, it’s based on the needs of the team I’m fighting on. Sometimes I’m all about causing chaos and sometimes I’m all about mitigating it. Sometimes I play center, sometimes I play 2, and sometimes I even play 1. While I’ve always been an unholy terror when attacking from the rear, for a long time my unwillingness to engage head-on shut down a lot of my offense and made my utility very narrow. As my skillset has expanded, I’ve become a much more well-rounded fighter with much broader utility. In profights, I’ve won fights by employing a variety of fighting styles and strategies – playing range, staying in someone’s face, slow pace, fast pace, out boxing, out sword fighting, out grappling… In all, I think what makes me a very difficult opponent in both melees and profights is that I can adapt and dramatically adjust my own fighting style to create openings and exploit weaknesses. And my cardio is downright ungodly.

DO YOU THINK FIGHTING CHANGES WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON? HOW HAS IT AFFECTED YOU PERSONALLY?

Yes of course. You learn a lot about responsibility, commitment, and consequences, and you ultimately grow, not only as a fighter but as a person. For me, fighting has been a sort of cornerstone in my life, especially during the hardest times. Fighting has provided purpose and direction when I’ve felt without either. When I wasn’t getting what I felt I needed from the Army, I was at a loss for what I wanted to do with my life. When I decided to leave the military, I really wasn’t sure what my plan was and kinda felt directionless. Training and competing was something of a lifeline for me to have a goal to work towards while I was figuring everything else out. Some people see training as a chore they have to do in order to get to do what they actually want – travel and compete with their friends. But for me training itself is a reward. Not just for the actual exercise high and fun, but for me, working on something, struggling with it at training, seeing it start to come together, landing it for the first time at training, and eventually hitting it in realtime competition is one of the absolute most rewarding things for me. It’s a very tangible measure of progression and achievement. So that’s what it provides for me, in addition to some of the best friends and best adventures you could ever hope for in life.

WHAT WOULD YOUR ADVICE BE FOR NEW PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE SPORT?

Like pretty much every sport, it’s very much a “you get out of it what you put into it” kind of deal. Sure you can have a great time being casual, training occasionally, and competing at local tournaments and such and get what you need that way if that’s what you’re into. Or you can train your butt off, put in the work and the grind, and get to the top tier of competition in the sport. Quality training is actually pretty accessible in this sport, as the top teams and fighters are very open with their successful techniques/strategies and often host different training camps throughout the year, many of which are designed to provide fighters the tools to up their training quality back home. The sport is also fairly young in the grand scheme of sports, which leaves a pretty low entry skill level. The good thing about that is that it’s the perfect sport to get into well into your adulthood. It would be much harder to get into something like football or soccer or pretty much any well established sport for the first time in your mid 20s-late 40s at a competitive level because people have been doing them since they were 5-10 years old. That’s not the case with our sport, which means you can come into it and advance your skill level fairly quickly to the point of being an asset to your team and being able to hold your own in melees, duels, and profights. So if you think it’s too late, think again!

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO FOR THE FUTURE OF ARMORED COMBAT SPORTS?

I look forward to the skill levels in our sport continuing to grow, especially as there is a shift toward increased athleticism. If you look at NFL footage from the 70s and 80s versus the past decade, there’s a definite refinement of athleticism and skill. Our sport is still pretty early in that shift and I’m intrigued by what it’s going to look like and how it’s going to morph over the next years and even decades. I’m also looking forward to women’s numbers continuing to grow in armored combat. When I first started, I was often training with the boys and sometimes even competing alongside them at tournaments when there weren’t other female fighters. Then we got consistent women’s 3v3s, then 5v5s, and now even 10v10s/12v12s are happening at tournaments that aren’t even international. It’s incredible. As the sport continues to gain traction, I’ve been seeing sponsorships pop up at the individual level, team level, and event level. I look forward to more of that, as people have been spending hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of their own money just to do what they’re passionate about. Taking some monetary responsibility off staff, organizers, and fighters helps to enhance the sport and make it even more accessible. Heck, there are even some leagues paying fighters, and that’s absolutely amazing.

ANY FINAL WORDS YOU WANTED TO MENTION?

In regards to the training ethic that some competitive teams are struggling with, there’s a saying that comes to mind. I’m not sure if I heard it somewhere or if it simply occurred to me because it just makes sense, but it pertains to excuses. 

“If you truly want to train, you can always find a way to make it happen. If you don’t want to train, you can always find a way to make that happen too.”

So go put that work in, upgrade your skill, get fit, forge bonds of friendship and family, go on some epic adventures, and take all that armored combat has to offer. You’re not too old, you’re not too inexperienced, you’re not too small, you’re not too big, and you’re never not good enough to get into armored combat – nor are you ever good enough to not get better. Go get some!