It’s been a couple of days since the infamous celebrity kick-boxing match at the Asia Fighting Championship (AFC) turned into a tragedy, and temperatures are still running high over its subsequent shocking turn of events.
Quick recap. The highly-hyped Muay Thai bout between YouTube personality Steven Lim and Singapore Idol runner-up Sylvester Sim was not meant to be, due to the latter’s last minute retreat from the fixture in the inaugural AFC. The show went on, nonetheless, with World Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Federation president Pradip Subramanian replacing Sim.
The match on Friday night at Marina Bay Sands resulted in two shocking outcomes: the oddball underdog Lim won by technical knockout, while Pradip suffered a cardiac arrest post-match and passed away soon after.
Following the 32-year-old’s death, outrage on social media has been loudly directed at Lim, with many unfairly calling him a “murderer”, despite medical reports saying otherwise. The ire has since been re-directed to AFC’s organizers, who are now accused of prioritizing a publicity stunt instead of the safety of its amateur fighters.
As angry netizens are wont to do, they reacted by bombing AFC’s Facebook page with one-star reviews.
‘Reckless and irresponsible’
On a more measured front, ONE Championship chief executive Chatri Sityodtong gave a scathing denunciation of AFC’s decision to hold the celebrity bout. Responding to queries from the media, the man went on Facebook to post a lengthy note slamming the “reckless and irresponsible” decision made by the AFC promoters to have two fighters without proper training and protective gear compete in a professional bout, among other issues.
“After watching the video of the fight, I can assure you that (Lim) and Pradip had almost zero knowledge of how to protect themselves, let alone how to execute any martial arts technique,” he wrote.
“As a leader in our community, I hope the authorities deal with the CEO of Asia Fighting Championship harshly and severely to deter any other future reckless, irresponsible acts by anyone else.”
Fellow fight event organizer Arvind Lalwani — head of Singapore Fighting Championships — expressed his concerns to The Straits Times, stating that he would have cancelled the fight in the event of a last-minute withdrawal.
Among the ground, fight pundits also noted their strong opposition to the notorious match. Hidzir Junaini — a combat sports fan of 20 years and one half of pro wrestling podcast duo Hard Hidz — expressed his appal at the news of AFC’s celebrity bout when it was first announced.
“As if sanctioning that freak show bout wasn’t bad enough, they shoehorned in Pradip Subramanian as a late replacement on a day’s notice. That’s absolute unconscionable. Promotions typically put fighters through an exhaustive battery of medical tests to determine if a fighter is fit to compete. What kind of testing could possibly have happened within one day? Perhaps pre-existing medical conditions could have been spotted and addressed. This tragedy was absolutely preventable.”
He argued that AFC’s seemingly nonexistent commitment to fighter safety amounted to “negligent homicide”, and fully agreed with the main consensus of the one-star reviews currently flooding the Facebook page of the “shady promoter” .
“This was a company that sought to generate publicity and a quick profit with a circus match — prioritizing money over the health and well-being of their fighters,” Hidzir noted to Coconuts Singapore, stressing the need for greater government oversight in Singapore regarding combat sports.
“They’ve not only tarnished the sport of Muay Thai, they contributed to the untimely death of a good man.”
AFC’s response
According to AFC’s official statement following Pradip’s death, it’s planning to hold a press conference “in due course”. The company’s founder and chief executive officer Sasidharan Unnithan assured ST that the match followed all the standards and safety protocols of sanctioning body World Muaythai Council (WMC). He also added that a medical team had certified the fighters fit (according to WMC’s guidelines), but declined to comment on Pradip’s readiness concerning the last-minute switch.
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