October’s Fighter of the Month is none other than Raul Felix, who in the few years he’s been in the community, has done a lot as a fighter and growing his community in Maine. You can see his strong growth as a fighter and am proud of his achievements. Congratulations to Raul!
| NOTABLE WINS |
| 2nd Carolina Carnage 2024 Pro-Fight Heavyweight 2nd Carolina Carnage 2023 Pro-Fight Super Heavyweight 3rd Grapes of Wrath 2024 5 vs 5 Melee Tournament (Pale Horse) 2nd Rookie Rumble Warlord 2022 |
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TRAINING FOR ARMORED COMBAT?
A little over three years.
DO YOU HAVE ANY BACKGROUND EXPERIENCE IN MARTIAL ARTS OR OTHER SPORTS?
I have been consistently working out since I was a teenager. I played football in high school, though I wasn’t an exceptional player. I also learned some basic combatives in the US Army, and did some amateur football in the Israeli Football League (I was a little better there) while I was security contracting.
HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT ARMORED COMBAT AND WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO JOIN?
I love history and I watch all sorts of war documentaries. I finished watching one about a medieval war and at the end popped out: Battle of the Nations 2015 USA VS Russia. I was like “WTF” and then clicked on it. Then I was like “They’re fighting for real! That’s sweet!” It looked so cool and brutal. I went down an obsessive rabbit hole trying to find out all I could. I showed it to my woman and my friends. She was supportive. My friends talked smack and said it was LARPing. I later convinced them it wasn’t, but they still gave me LARPing jokes.
I had been looking for a sport to do because I had finally recovered from a year-long injury that had gotten me fat. I joined a small team for a few soft kit practices in Orange County, California, but I then got a good job in Maine, uprooted my life, and moved across the country. My first weekend here in Maine I went to my first Portland Reavers practice and haven’t stopped since.
DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT IN YOUR FIRST FIGHT? CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE EXPERIENCE?
My first real Knight Fight was at the St. Paddys Day Brawl 2022 at the Knights Hall in Nashua, NH versus 6 ‘4”, 260lbs Egon Kazmer. I’m 6 ‘2”, 220lbs. I was very nervous, but I also felt like I had put in the work to prepare. I had been practicing with the Reavers for eight months. Kayla Scraponi, who is now on the Mythics, and Michael Johnson, who is now on the Warlords, were in my corner. Mikey was giving me some chi warrior advice.
“It’s just a fun fight. Don’t stress it too much.”
I was wearing loaner armor from Evan Ringo. The chin-strap system in the helmet didn’t quite work with my head right. The green hue from the lights illuminated the list as we called up to fight.
“Fighters, are you ready?” yells the Marshall. We both raise our swords.“Start fight!”
We approach each other and we tap swords as a sign of respect. I raise my sword and shield in front of me, protecting my face. Focus on your A-Guard I think to myself. My aggression just switches on and I step forward, quickly landing a hit with my sword and then I hit him in the face with my punch shield. I was a reckless brawler more than a finely tuned fighting machine.
About 30 seconds through the first round my helmet starts to slip over my eyes and I experience the helmet horrors a bit. I yell as I try to adjust my helmet so I can see. The round is still going so for the rest of the fight I just use Egons feet as a point of reference to where he is. Egon gets a couple of pretty mean hits on me during that time. I won the first round and I’m in the corner struggling to breathe.
In the second round, Egons experience and strength were put on full display and he beat me around the list as I valiantly and foolheartedly struggled to land some random shots. By the end of that round, I was so disoriented that I didn’t know where my corner was.
Round Three, Egon and I had some insane exchanges. At one point though, he charged in and was able to take me down with an Osoto Gari. I looked up at those green lights hearing my corner yelling at me to get up and the roar of the crowd cheering. I’m exhausted, but I am able to muster up the strength to get up before the ten count. We have another brief exchange of hits before Egon is able to take me down to the floor again. This time, I had nothing left. I lost by KO.
After getting over the fact I lost, the words of encouragement from all the fighters and spectators about how crazy of a fight that was, especially for a first fight, filled me with pride in myself. While drinking a celebration beer, Egon and I had some good convo and became friends. I knew I wanted more of this.
WHAT IS YOUR PREFERRED WEAPON? DO YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR FAVORITE?
I use a falchion and punch shield. I love my punch shield. My teammates have called my shield punch the El Guapo Wapo.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE SOME POSITIVE ASPECTS THAT COME FROM THE SPORT?
It’s a great way to help you keep in shape. Even if you don’t want to actually fight in armor, you can still train in soft-kit. We have many people on The Portland Reavers who are primarily doing it for fitness or a casual hobby.
There is a very good community and social scene to the sport and team mates have become like a second family to me, especially since all of mine is on the West Coast. There are so many different people that have helped me in big and small ways that I’m very thankful to have in my life.
WHAT IS YOUR FIGHTING STYLE – IF YOU HAVE ONE?
I have a very aggressive fighting style. When I first started people told me I needed to slow down and save my gas tank. I decided to get a bigger gas tank and do a lot more intense cardio training. I have learned to control it more, though I’m still not perfect and my aggression gets the best of me. I just like hitting my opponent hard, as many times and as effectively as possible. I don’t care about making it technically beautiful, I just like to make sure they know that ringing in their head is a reminder they fought El Guapo.
DO YOU THINK FIGHTING CHANGES WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON? HOW HAS IT AFFECTED YOU PERSONALLY?
I’m a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistans and I have some experiences that will stay with me forever. It is a very healthy outlet for a lot of the anger and aggression that I have bottled up inside of me. While I’ve always tried to be a positive person, I’m finding the little annoyances in life don’t bug me as much as they used to.
I don’t think fighting will completely change who you are. I do think it will help you figure out, maybe exaggerate, your best and worst qualities and give you some tools in order to fix or mitigate them.
WHAT WOULD YOUR ADVICE BE FOR NEW PEOPLE INTERESTED IN THE SPORT?
Stop overthinking everything and just show up to practice at your local team. Just by showing up to practice you’re already ahead of 90% of people. There is never going to be a perfect time to get started. Real life will always happen.
WHAT DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO FOR THE FUTURE OF ARMORED COMBAT SPORTS?
While I think teams and organizations are getting better at running events and standardizing, there are still way more growing pains to be had. There are so many events now that you can be doing something nearly every weekend. I think we’re going to have a great new generation of fighters who have grown up with this sport who are going to be way better than anyone around today.
On a more selfish note: I would love it to become an Olympic Sport, but that’s because this is my only chance to ever be an Olympic athlete.
ANY FINAL WORDS YOU WANTED TO MENTION?
I wear the Virgen De Guadalupe on my tabard because I thought to myself: What would a big Mexican Catholic knight wear to battle? And it has become my signature look. I encourage every fighter to get their own individual tabard that represents their personalities the best. Without fear, be the knight you’ve always dreamt of being.
