Entertainment, TV, Television - Army Times

History’s death match

Just when you thought aging UFC legend Chuck Liddell wasn’t worth another TV appearance, imagine this scenario: Liddell, wielding Roman gladiator weapons, destroying a 400-pound slab of choice USDA cow. Let’s get it on!

Liddell and other warriors are just some of the reasons to tune into Spike TV’s newest testosterone-fueled show, “Deadliest Warrior.” Perhaps the best reason is the show’s dedication to answering the age-old question that tough guys love to ponder: Who would win in a battle between (fill in the blanks):

• Gladiator vs. Apache Indian?

• Viking vs. samurai?

• Green Beret vs. Russian Special Forces soldier?

“Warrior” uses a mix of history, science and carnage to try to find out.

The show leans on the expert analysis of guys like Geoff Desmoulin, a biomedical engineer and karate black belt who uses high-tech sensors to collect data.

Desmoulin teams with emergency-room doctor and UFC physician Dr. Armand Dorian, who speculates on the lethality of weapons and attacks on a human body, and computer whiz Max Geiger, who calculates the test findings and runs a battle simulation program. Using computer-generated animation and live actors, the science and secrets of the most dangerous men who ever lived are unveiled.

“These are history’s greatest killing machines,” Desmoulin said. “It’s fun to see how they play out.”

Each episode enlists warrior-specific, world-class fighters and experts such as Liddell to provide insight into what makes the combatants tick, Desmoulin said. In the Apache vs. Gladiator episode, there was a modern-day military connection: Navy close-combat instructor and Reserve Petty Officer 2nd Class Snake Blocker, a Lipan Apache and renowned knife fighter, was one of two Apaches providing expert analysis and weapons demonstrations. Blocker is a member of the Navy’s soon-to-be-deployed Cargo Handling Battalion 14.

“It was great entertainment,” Blocker said of the experience.

Liddell, for his part, was fitted with a Roman cestus, a glovelike device with embedded razor sharp iron spikes. Desmoulin and his teammates then ran Liddell through a series of tests while wearing various sensors to test pressure, force, impact and the like. Liddell scored a straight right-hand punch that packed more than 1,000 pounds of force. When he slipped on the cestus, he tripled the power and nearly cut a 400-pound side of beef in half.

“From tests like these, I can get a very good indication of how powerful a blast or an impact would have been,” Desmoulin said.

The result is a raucous, trash-talking good time. And you get to learn some military history in the process.

“As scientists, we try to take an objective view, but you always have some precursor notion of how you think things will go,” Desmoulin said of the battles. “But I’m always, always surprised at the results. Always.”