UPDATE: AFC gets flooded by 1-star reviews on Facebook, fight sport pundits slam celebrity match organizers
What started as an ludicrous fixture turned into a cop out, which in turn led to a surprising outcome, but one that ended in utter tragedy.
A celebrity match held at the first ever Asia Fighting Championship (AFC) between oddball personality Steven Lim and World Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Federation (WBPF) president Pradip Subramanian had the former emerging victorious, but the latter rushed to hospital, where he passed away not long after.
At first, it was supposed to be the Battle Of The Has-beens. Infamous 41-year-old Lim — a laughing stock when he auditioned horribly for Singapore Idol — was set to take on Sylvester Sim, a runner-up of the singing contest back in 2004. They were to face-off in a no-holds-barred Muay Thai kick-boxing fight.
The anticipated fight was hyped up for months by AFC organizers — but just a day before the big day, Sim withdrew from the match, citing “insufficient insurance coverage”, or so the press release said. Word on the street was that Sim’s management were hard-asses who demanded way too many things for their fussy client. The show had to go on, however, and the very last-minute change saw 32-year-old Pradip replacing Lim’s opponent.
With Pradip now in the joust, everyone expected Lim to go down quickly. Just look at Pradip.
But lo and behold, Lim won via technical knockout at Marina Bay Sands last night — and Pradip was noted to be in a daze after the underdog was declared the winner. You can see in this video here the moment when the referee stopped the fight after realizing that the bodybuilder was in no condition to continue.
After emerging victorious, Lim posted on Facebook stating that Pradip had to be rushed to hospital after the fight. A backstage member who spoke to Channel NewsAsia noted that the competitive bodybuilder seemed to be concussed and had to be helped backstage before being carted off into an ambulance.
It was only later confirmed by AFC organizers that Pradip died at the Singapore General Hospital around 9pm, an hour after his fight started. His wake is held in Woodlands today.
Lim expressed his condolences on Facebook after hearing the news of Pradip’s death, calling him a “respected fearless warrior and fighter”.
The role that Lim played in the tragic outcome soon became a talking point on social media.
Pradip’s project — the AFC Physique Championships scheduled to be held today — was first announced to be cancelled as a sign of respect, but the organizers decided to have it proceed as planned.
