There’s a new martial art in town. Unified Weapons Master takes the best parts of no-holds-barred MMA fighting, adds some high-tech armour, and spices things up even more with an arsenal of deadly weapons. Developed by Australian company Chiron Global, the upstart sport wants to bring traditional kendo and other armed combat sports into sync with MMA — while keeping everything safe with some amazingly advanced full-body armour.
The coolest part of UWM is the fact that each fighter is hooked up to a suite of impact sensors distributed throughout the armour’s plates, reporting every contact wirelessly to external computers. Imagine watching the sport on TV, with a live read-out of the strength and severity of impacts and blows displayed in real time.
The armour was developed by a Sydney team that includes one of the experts who designed some of the mail and plate for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. We can’t wait to see whether it takes off. []