A version of this article originally appeared on VICE Belgium.
Brussels-based photographer Victor Blanchevoye, 23, is a fan of combat sports. After digging around on social media, he found Hood Fights Tiel, a fight club based in the town of Tiel in the east of the Netherlands. The premise of the club is simple: Whoever is interested can meet up in the middle of nowhere and fight someone.
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During a fight, people stand around in a circle surrounding the two opponents and a referee. There are no special rules, but the idea is to keep things civilised. The matches are also recorded on video and uploaded to the club’s YouTube channel with running commentary in the background. People in the audience are allowed to take pictures and videos, too.
Blanchevoye has been to about 15 of these fights. At first, he was a little hesitant because he didn’t know what kind of characters he would meet. “In this world, there are a lot of neo-Nazis,” Blanchevoye says. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case at all. “Participants come from everywhere and they’re often representing their country of origin or their community,” he continues. “There’s a little bit of an Olympic feel to it.”
Overall, he said the sparring is pretty light-hearted and is considered sort of like training. “One day, the cops came just to see that everything was OK, and I was surprised to find they had no problem with it,” Blanchevoye says. “The only issue to me is that the organisers should be more careful about falls. And it’d be good to have people on hand to carry fighters if there are injuries.”
Surprisingly, most of the fighters are super young – generally around the age of 17. “The one who inspires me the most is Amidou,” Blanchevoye says. At 17, Amidou (who didn’t want to share his last name for privacy reasons) is the champion of the group. “Beyond being super strong, I just find him moving. He always turns up surrounded by his whole gang.”
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