BETHEL, Ohio — It’s a sport you don’t see or hear about often, but medieval fighting is seeing growth in popularity in Bethel, Ohio, and one fighter is training for the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus. 

  • Medieval fighting starts March 6, from 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
  • Cincinnati Barbarians President Robert Jacob Bowman will be fighting in the competition
  • Medieval fighting can be 1-on-1 battles or 5-on-5 melees

Meet Robert Jacob Bowman. He’s the president of the Cincinnati Barbarians — a medieval fighting group in Bethel. 

“There’s nothing else like this,” Bowman said. “This is probably one of the best sports I’ve ever done.”

Fighters train with weapons used centuries ago, like swords and battle axes, to defeat their opponent in one-on-one fights or 5-on-5 melees —all while wearing 60 pounds of armor.

“We try to weightlift every practice so we can build our strength, because this is not something you can just really hop into and get going,” Bowman said. 

As you can imagine, it can be very exhausting.

“Endurance and stamina. You gotta really focus on your breathing. This doesn’t show it as much, but in one of our helmets, all that CO2 just bounces right back up into you,” said Bowman. 

But to these barbarians, it’s all worth it. 

“There’s nothing like it on earth, the adrenaline rush, it’s amazing,” Robert Arkenau said. 

All the fighters’ efforts are leading up to ultimately competing in the Arnold Sports Festival.

Medieval Fighting makes its debut this year on Friday, March 6. 

Right now, Bowman is the only fighter competing this year, but he says it’s going to be a great learning experience for the entire group.

“I wanna see where I’m physically at, compared to these other guys. It’d be absolutely great if I could go far enough to win, but if I could just test my skills against these other fighters who have been doing this for years, that would be extraordinary,” Bowman said.

The Arnold Sports Festival kicks off next week on March 5 at the Columbus Convention Center, and medieval fighting takes the stage on March 6th from 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased on the Arnold Sports Festival website.