LOL. Yeah you can beat him naked and unarmed, but that's not going to work for most of us. If I had to compromise and really wanted to save my resources, I'd still get iron armour and use an upgraded wooden club to beat him to death. It causes more bonus blunt damage than unarmed and consumes way less stamina than the mace so you can keep pummelling bonemass for much longer before needing to recover. And it only costs you wood and bone.