The world of contact sports is about to be taken by storm by one of the craziest creations in human history – armboxing, a weird take on the art of boxing.

The world is full of weird and wacky sports, but when it comes to downright crazy inventions, the Russians definitely take the cake. After the insanity that was ‘car-jitsu’ – basically jiu jitsu in a car – the brilliant minds in Mother Russia have come up with something even more insane. Known only as ‘armboxing’, this new contact sport sees two fighters standing opposite each other being chained to a podium with their lead hands glued together and the other hand free to do damage.

Imagine boxing without any footwork or a guard and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what armboxing is all about. Instead of ‘dancing’ around in a ring, the two fighters have nowhere to run and can only rely on head and torso movement to stop their opponent’s blows. This makes for a real brutal, and some would say ‘entertaining’, contest.

According to the few sources I’ve been able to find on this weird new contact sport, armboxing matches consist of up to three one-minute rounds. If both fighters manage to get past the second round, the third and final act features slightly different rules – the fighters have their lead hands released and can pound each other with both fists.

The first few clips of armboxing matches made their way onto video sharing platforms like TikTok in July, but they’ve been getting a lot of attention. It may not rival MMA or classic boxing anytime soon, but armboxing is offering the kind of entertainment that many are looking for these days, and if people’s social media reactions are anything to go by, we may well see more of it in the near future.

“This is what Mayweather vs Pacquiao was supposed to be,” one person jokingly commented on Twitter.

“Armboxing is The Craziest & Greatest F’N Combat Sport Ever,” someone else wrote.