Please help finding a book!

[the_deity]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me find a book I read a long time ago, I can't remember the title or author, but I remember some of the plot details.

The book is a futuristic Sci-fi, set over numerous worlds. It begins with the main character, a male, with very strong mental and physical discipline, fighting in an arena. He fights against a number of opponents armed with different weapons, but he fights unarmed, I remember this being an important plot detail. He is the first to fight unarmed for a long time. He wins the competition, then when leaving the planet is kidnapped.

The beginning of the book is most vivid, after that I don't remember much, except that he is forced to work for his enemy through a mind control device, which he eventually manages to overcome, through his exceptional mental control.

I know this isn't a lot to go on, but I hope someone will be able to help me locate this book, thanks very much!

[nealasher]

Reads like many a pulp SF plot. It could be one of the E C Tubb Earl Dumarest stories, but which one of the twenty plus books I've no idea.

[Ealdric]

:) A name like that, and you need help finding a simple story title ? :)

The story sounds a little like John Norman's The Chieftain, the first in his Telnarian Histories.

[Dadalus]

I know this post is an old one, stumbled across it in my search for this book. Several hours later I discovered the books name, so I thought i would post it here for anyone else trying to find it.

Planet of the Warlord (1981) - Douglas Hill