Days after his opponent Pradip dies, Steven Lim ‘may consider’ joining future fights

SINGAPORE — YouTube personality Steven Lim is not ruling out participating in another “celebrity fight-off”.

On Sunday (Sept 24), Lim, 41, had said he was “devastated” to learn of his opponent Pradip Subramanian’s death.

Subramanian, 32, was rushed to the Singapore General Hospital after the muay thai bout, in which Lim was declared winner in a match that lasted less than five minutes.

According to organisers of the Asia Fighting Championship (AFC) match, a preliminary medical report said he suffered “a cardiac arrest respiratory failure”.

The final medical report will be released in one to two months.

Describing the late bodybuilder as a “determined and strong fighter; a true competitor”, Lim said he was shocked and could not believe what had happened.
 

After the fight, Lim, following the advice of his father, "prayed" for Subramanian to be at peace.

Speaking with TODAY, Lim said that he will be keeping the belt he won from the celebrity bout. “AFC is currently doing the box for the belt. They promised me I can collect by this week. I need to defend my belt too for any future celebrity championships, if there are any.”

“I worked very hard for this from the beginning and placed a lot of efforts in promoting it too. I trained and (worked out in the gym) almost every day for three-and-a-half months and it affected my daily work,” said Lim.

Lim and Subramanian, who was the president of the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation Singapore, participated in a muay thai exhibition match as part of the AFC, held at Marina Bay Sands.

Subramanian was a last-minute stand-in after Singapore Idol alumnus Sylvester Sim pulled out the day before citing “insurance issues”.

Sim has so far remained quiet about the incident. His manager also said no statement would be forthcoming as Sim is “not involved”.

Police are investigating the unnatural death. TODAY understands that Police will be questioning relevant parties.

When asked, Lim declined to comment on whether he has been called in by the police.