8 Days — October 05, 2017

26

8 DAYS

STORY CHERYL ONG

PHOTO: ASIA FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP

scene & Heard

A Tragedy in the Ring

A last-minute replacement

for Sylvester Sim in a highly-

publicised square-off with

STEVEN LIM resulted in a

tragedy of epic proportions.

Thirteen years after he stripped his way to

notoriety on Singapore Idol, Steven Lim, 41, is in

the news again. This time round, globally, for a publicity

stunt gone wrong.

During the Asia Fighting Championship, Steven’s

two-round, four-minute duel with World Bodybuilding

and Physique Sports Federation president, Pradip

Subramanian, 32, ended in tragedy. Footage of the

fight which took place on Sep 23 at Marina Bay Sands

showed Steven delivering several blows to Pradip’s

head before the referee called off the match early and

Steven won by technical knockout. Thereafter, Pradip

concussed and had to be helped out of the ring. He

was rushed to the Singapore General Hospital where he

died of cardiac arrest respiratory failure.

The Muay Thai match was originally supposed to

be a showdown between SI alum, Sylvester Sim, and

Steven. Billed as “the fight of the century”, Steven and

Sly’s square off was to drum up hype for the inaugural

fight fest. But a day before the bout, Sly pulled out of

the match, citing insufficient insurance coverage. His

replacement, Pradip, is reportedly the organiser’s close

friend.

Pradip’s shocking death set in motion the finger-

pointing game. ‘Blame Steven’ was the outcry of some

pitchfork-carrying netizens. ‘No, this is all Sylvester

Sim’s fault’, cried another bunch of keyboard warriors.

’Cos, you know, if it wasn’t for his last-minute pull-out,

none of this would have happened, they wrote. Others

rushed to crucify the organisers for their negligence,

lack of safety protocols (no protective gear!) and

reckless decision in roping in an unconditioned Pradip

a mere 24 hours before the match. Typically, it takes

about six months to prepare for a bout. In comparison,

Steven trained for three-and-a-half months.

Sure, perhaps the organiser should be held liable

for letting a fame-hungry wannabe fight a last-minute

replacement for entertainment — a move that reeked

of poor judgment that undermined the risk factor of

combat sports. After all, if you’ve watched the fight

footage, you would have seen Steven throwing punches

mindlessly a la a playground brawl, and that during

Round Two of the match, Pradip’s shoddy defense was

no match for Steven’s aggressive advances.

But, at the end of the day, perhaps, Ah Boys to Men

star Maxi Lim, who was present at the tragic Steven vs

Pradip match, said it best in a YouTube vid: “Just stop

pointing fingers at everybody. It’s so easy to blame

everyone. But this is something that nobody wanted to

happen.”

Fight night:

Steven Lim

(right) and Pradip

Subramanian

exchanging blows

during the ill-fated

match.