Each year, modern "knights" from across the world compete at a medieval fighting contest --- Battle of the Nations. The Tenth World Historic Medieval Battle Championship is being held this weekend at a fortress in Serbia. It'll culminate with a big battle involving 150 fighters on each side. A team from China is attending for the third year in a row. They participated in the "30-versus-30" category on Saturday, competing against the strongest opponent -- the Ukrainian team. CGTN's Aljosa Milenkovic has more.

His name is Wang Sai and he is China's trump card in 2019 Battle of the Nations. At age 33, he's a former star in UFC mixed martial arts with 24 wins and 6 loses and only a month ago decided to join this sport, as a member of team China. Minutes before he entered the ring, team colleagues shared their enthusiasm about Wang Sai.

ZHAO XIANFEI PROMOTER, TEAM CHINA "Our expectation is a gold medal of course. The world championship, because he is world champion, China's first middleweight mixed martial arts world champion from our country. This is the first time a professional Chinese mixed martial arts professional fighter that participates in a historical, full armor, contact fight."

And their expectations were fulfilled. Wang Sai not only crushed his Hungarian opponent in this match, but also won in three out of the four matches he had on this day in Smederevo. The Chinese team is confident their new star will win a top medal on the final day of the competition. While Wang Sai is the reason for so much Chinese pride here, expectations were more muted for the Chinese team in the 30 against 30 match. Here they are arriving at the arena, but with so-called mercenaries as part of their team.

GAO PENG TEAM CHINA LEADER "And we have 14 Australian fighters, two Canadian and six from New Zealand. Every year we fight better, grow stronger and more good."

Without enough Chinese fighters, the team needed to join forces with other nations. And they faced one of the Championship favorites - Ukraine. In two rounds all sides used the full force of their weapons and all their strength to throw opponents to the ground.

ALJOSA MILENKOVIC SMEDEREVO, SERBIA "It looks very brutal and violent but at the same time it gives us an idea of what these fights, these battles, looked like in the Middle Ages. Although back then, swords and axes were razor sharp, and the protective equipment wasn't supported by 21st-century technology."

In the end, the Chinese team was overpowered by superior and more experienced Ukrainians. But they take away experience, on a learning curve they hope will lead to victory next time. Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Smederevo, Serbia.