hmmmm, I enjoy watching the occasional UFC PPV fight, so I would give this a go. They are going to need to make those suits much lighter though, 25kg, that's 55 pounds! It's going to be hard to be quick & nimble while wearing that!
Good luck to em', but they will never be as big as UFC, I think people just prefer watching people fight using the tools they were born with.

This will be serious fun. Even more fun if a spectator can see a wounded combatant struggling on! I am sure it's possible to simulate wounds by including forced reactions to damage in the armour. For example, if a combatant receives a killing blow, the whole suit of armour instantly locks up; or if an arm is cut off, the said arm of the armour locks up. Minor damage could cause a 'treacle effect', a forced slowing down of the appropriate appendage or organ. Blindness, loss of blood, loss of balance either temporary or permanent, could all be forced as a reaction in the suit.

I'm in !! only if my suit give me ,eye pokes ,kidney punches ,nut knockers ,taser zaps .... to spur me on and show point scores. and a suit of VR censors that i could fight on line with. till that happens I'll watch this "OMG" sport take off faster than ...??

I want to know where the hell this stuff was at when _I_ was learning Arnis (i.e., being pounded to a pulp with the sticks).

Well, damn..at my age this leaves me out...I remember some of the crazier members of Society of Creative Anachronism kicking an idea very much like this back in the late '70s-early '80s. Sounds like great fun.....EN GARDE !!

The text suggests that the working versions of the suits will weigh about 37 lb. A realistic simulation - and that may not ever be their goal - would be to estimate the effects of different weapons on people wearing different sorts of armor that weigh at least 37 lb.

Isn't this already a farce packaged preservation when the idea is to kill.

From what I can gather, these suits are designed to simulate the lethality or not of each strike in unarmoured combat rather than armoured. Only mass weapons have any chance of penetrating armour enough to injure someone, and even thats not very likely unless you use something like a pick...
The suits' weight may take away from this effort but I applaud the idea nonetheless.
I currently compete in full contact medieval armoured combat on the international stage and our armour is between 30-40kg depending on how much protection you want (the Russians wear less but they are crazy). Its all custom made and tops out at about $3k for everything but has no electronics to measure stuff - we fight to last team standing 5v5 mostly. NOT SCA, reenactment or role playing. Think of it as Team MMA crossed with rugby using steel weapons and no ball.

I used to fence, with my favorite sword, The Saber. Too cool, well, not so cool temp wise. Air conditioning is a must. We were drenched after some minutes of aggressive fencing. Oh, and it was far from being bloodless! Saber could, depending on how novice your opponent was, not forgiving.
Epee was the most painful by far. Quarter sized bruises were common. It did teach you one thing, move fast, out of the way! Painless fencing? Something will be out of the equation per teaching!

franchise this worldwide. Awesome Next stage Robotics for more severe combat