History Main / CasualtyInTheRing

!!'''As a DeathTrope, several if not all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* The fate of one of Catherine Trammell's fiancées in ''Film/BasicInstinct''.

* EA's ''[[VideoGame/MutantFootballLeague Mutant League]]'' series of sports games revolved entirely around this, where players could be blown up on the court, bisected, etc.

** Not surprising, as it happened in the actual jousts, themselves contests in which the death or injury of the opponent was not, after all, the point (the general melee was rather rougher -- people don't try to re-enact that part of a tourney, at least not with real weapons as it was fought back then). King Henry II of France died in a jousting accident.

* On two separate occasions, professional wrestler Ox Baker's opponents died after taking his signature "heart punch" (later renamed "Hurt punch"). Although he did not really cause the deaths of Alberto Torres or Ray Gunkel, they were worked into his character, making him a feared heel throughout the late 70's.

* Creator/YvesMontand sang about "Battling Joe", a young boxer who, one night, becomes blind during a fight.
* Pettinellis' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whZV9ZzC-FY "Un hombre muerto en el ring"]] a.k.a. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "A Dead Man in the Ring"]].

* Part of Bobby Jacks' backstory in ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittest'' is that he accidentally killed an opponent in a boxing match.

* Seems to happen in the ''Series/ElleryQueen''episode "The Adventure of the Sunday Punch" but it turns out to be a poisoning disguised as an accidental death.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* At least two characters in the boxing manga ''Manga/TomorrowsJoe'' die in the ring, or immediately after a fight. [[spoiler:Even Joe [[TheHeroDies seems to suffer this]], but [[UncertainDoom it's left uncertain.]]]]
* In ''Manga/Reborn2004'', this trope is the reason why Knuckle, the Sun Guardian for Vongola Primo swore off boxing and became a priest.

* Used in the backstory of ''Manga/KarateShoukoushiKohinataMinoru''. Ibuki Kengo's older brother Satoru, a martial arts genius, dies from intracranial hemorrhage due to the injuries he sustained in a match against an even greater Muay Thai fighter, Samart Sirinto. Ibuki Satoru had a cerebral arteriovenous malformation, a congenital disorder which placed him in great danger should he experience heavy head trauma, which had not been formally diagnosed before his death, but his fiancée believes that the medical examiners discovered it in his pre-fight medical examination and allowed him to fight anyway at the behest of the director of the fight promotion.

* In one of the stories in ''Manga/ConfidentialConfessions'', the LoveInterest has a HeroicBSOD after his opponent collapses following a match. The opponent's father doesn't hold a grudge, but it doesn't make it easier on him.
* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': A consistent rule of the numerous Martial Arts Tournaments in the series is that killing your opponent is forbidden, and grounds for immediate disqualification. On a few occasions, the trope has been played with:
** In the original ''Manga/DragonBall'', Goku refused to kill Piccolo Jr. because they were technically still in a Tournament match. Everyone else had ceased caring about the rules at this point (and in fact, the ring had been destroyed during the fighting), and are baffled that Goku is still thinking that way.
** In the Buu Arc of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', Videl is almost disqualified when she accidentally breaks Spopovitch's neck, making it appear that he has died. The match continues after Spopovitch stands up and rights his head, showing that he was unharmed.
** In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', when Goku uses a Spirit Bomb against Jiren in the Tournament of Power, Jiren deflects it back and it appears that Goku has died in the explosion. The Grand Priest rules that since it was Goku's own attack that killed him, this would be considered a form of "self-destruction" and Jiren would not be held responsible for the death. Naturally, it turns out that Goku barely survived the explosion anyway. The same reasoning is used later when several other fighters appear to self-destruct by their own energies, rather than their opponent's attack. This particularly includes Android #17 after he blows himself up to save Goku and Vegeta from being eliminated by Jiren.
* ''Manga/{{Major}}''. Goro's father Shigeharu was hit by a deadball from Joe Gibson in the head, ''at 160 km/h''. Somehow he managed to get back up and continue playing, but the damage manifested the next morning, resulting in his death. Especially tragic given that the newspapers were all over talking about how he was the hero in the match and Goro didn't realize he was dead until he grabbed his hand and noticed that it was cold.
* ''Anime/MegaloBox'': The first season is a retelling of ''Manga/TomorrowsJoe'', but downplays the original's death in the ring in the first season: While Yuri is rendered paraplegic, both he and Joe survive the final bout. In the second season, ''Nomad'', Chief dies shortly after his final bout due to multiple illegal blows to the back of his head.

* ''ComicBook/CombatKellyAndHisDeadlyDozen'': Combat Kelly killed his opponent during the Army boxing championships and was arrested for manslaughter. He later learned that his opponent had been drugged and the referee bribed not to stop the fight.

* In the pro wrestling story, ''A Ring Of Their Own'', Wrestling/MichelleMcCool faces wrestler-turned-broadcaster Wrestling/{{Ivory}} in the ring. Michelle tries for a Faith Breaker but her hands are so sweaty she drops Ivory on her head, seriously injuring her and her being taken to the hospital.
* The wrestling short story ''Strong Fighting Champ'' has Wrestling/EddieGuerrero dying in the ring after delivering a Frog Splash to his opponent to win the match.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/MillionDollarBaby'', Maggie is hit from behind, lands on a corner stool and breaks her neck, leaving her a quadriplegic. Her mentor ultimately has to make the painful decision to [[ICannotSelfTerminate end her life]] before leaving boxing for good.

* The fate of one of Catherine Trammell's fiancées in ''Film/BasicInstinct''.

* ''Film/CinderellaMan'' shows this happening to two of Max Baer's other opponents. (Someone points out that Primo Carnera's huge height advantage saved him - instead of dying, he only got mauled.)
* In 1956's ''Film/{{The Harder They Fall|1956}}'', Humphrey Bogart's last film, Max Baer plays bloodthirsty boxer Buddy Brannen, a character based on himself. After another boxer dies in a match with Toro Moreno (whose character was based on Primo Carnera), Brannen is intent on proving that ''he'', who badly injured the boxer in his previous match, is really responsible for the death.

* The protagonist of ''[[http://www.encyclopedia-obscura.com/moviesargo.html Superargo contro Diabolikus]]'' does this accidentally during a wrestling match.
* ''Film/OngBak'' has this as part of the back story for the main character's master, which is the reason he tells him never to use Muay Thai for anything other than self-defense.
* ''Film/IpMan2'' has the Twister's fatal NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of Master Hung. Notable in that Hung absolutely knew what was going to happen. The ref calls off rounds multiple times when it appears the fight is becoming too one-sided and asks Hung if he's okay before letting it continue, and Ip even attempts to throw in the towel to save him, only for Hung to shoot him a silent look that basically says "no, let me die as a warrior."
* ''Film/RockyIV'': Apollo Creed agrees to an exhibition match with the Soviets' boxing machine Ivan Drago. Despite being severely beaten by Drago, Creed refuses to concede the match. [[Website/CollegeHumor Creed is clearly exhausted by the dance number he did with James Brown five minutes earlier. And before the second round is over...that's it.]]
* An atypical example in ''Film/HereComesMrJordan''. "K.O." Murdoch dies in the ring when he is ''shot'' after refusing to [[ThrowingTheFight throw the fight]]. After the soul of [[BodySurf body-surfing]] Joe Pendleton inhabits Murdoch's freshly available body, he (they?) wins the fight.
* The revenant plot of ''Film/ProWrestlersVsZombies'' is kicked off by Wrestling/ShaneDouglas either intentionally or negligently spiking the piledriver on Angus's brother during a match.
* ''Film/FearCity'': The main character Matt Rossi is still haunted by his accidental killing of an opponent in the ring, which led him to quit his career as a boxer.
* In the Mexican film ''Pepe el Toro'' (Pepe the Bull), the titular character accidentally kills his best friend in the ring during the semi-final match of an amateur tournament. The cause of death was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis Commotio Cordis]] a blow to the chest that disrupted the normal heart rhythm and caused a heart attack.
* In ''Film/{{Knockout}}'', Sandra is left comatose and paraplegic after her bout against Tanya "The Terminator" Tessaro, though she at least wakes up from the coma.
* ''Film/AfterDarkMySweet'': A trope that is already dark gets even darker. Flashbacks reveal that Kevin, once a pro boxer, sort of reverted to a bestial state during his last fight. He threw the referee aside and ripped his glove off with his teeth. Then, with his opponent already on his knees, Kevin beat the guy to death with his bare right hand. The fight caused him to have a mental breakdown and, as the movie begins, he has escaped from a mental institution.

[[folder:Live Action TV ]]
* ''{{Series/CSI}}'' had an episode where this happened. It turns out the dead guy died because his opponent was using loaded gloves ''and'' someone had gotten a hold of his coach's medkit.
* One episode of ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' relied on faking one of these in order to snare a corrupt local fight promoter.
* One season of ''Series/{{Oz}}'' features a boxing tourney, climaxing with the death of one of the combatants.
* ''Series/ColdCase'' had an amateur boxer dying in the ring while fighting against a clearly superior opponent. Decades later, the referee confessed on his deathbed that he took a bribe to not stop the fight.

* Seems to happen in ''Series/ElleryQueen'' but it turns out to be a poisoning disguised as an accidental death.
* Played for laughs in a ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' sketch where boxers hit each other so hard that their heads fall off.
* An episode of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' has Sam trying to prevent this. In the original timeline, a wrestler (the brother of the wrestler Sam leaped into) is due to die in the ring in an upcoming match. Sam decides to wrestle the opponent instead and saves the man's life.

* Music/WarrenZevon sings about the death of boxer Kim Duk Koo (see RealLife below) in his song "Boom-Boom Mancini."
* Pettinellis' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whZV9ZzC-FY "Un hombre muerto en el ring"]] a.k.a. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "A Dead Man in the Ring"]].

* In ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', fans knew that the rigged match-up between [[RobotGirl Penny]] and [[MagnetismManipulation Pyrrha]] wouldn't end well, but the question was which girl would die. Ultimately, some manipulation by [[MasterOfIllusion Emerald]] results in Pyrrha using a strong magnetic force to deflect what she ''thinks'' is hundreds of swords (but is really only a few), sending them flying back where the wires connecting them to Penny's body wrap around her and [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe cut her into four pieces]]. Pyrrha, for her part, is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified]] when she realizes what she's done, but she doesn't get much time to dwell on it, both because all hell breaks loose, and because she herself is killed by Cinder Fall later that night.
* Given the nature of ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'', the fight between [[Franchise/StreetFighter Balrog]] and [[VideoGame/KillerInstinct T.J. Combo]], while presented as a regular boxing match, had to end in one of these, with Balrog on the receiving end - a superpowered uppercut from T.J. ripped his head off. In fairness to T.J., Balrog was the first to both play dirty ''and'' turn it into a death fight by deciding he was going to murder T.J. for showing him up and rankling his pride.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'', Green Arrow faked his death in a fight in order to shock his opponent, Wildcat, out of competing in underground prizefights.

* Ratings Games, the team arena combat used to settle disputes between devils in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', are designed to be as non-lethal as possible, but accidents can happen. Riser loudly boasts that he could finish off a weakened Issei and get away with it. He was bluffing, using Issei's life as leverage to make Rias surrender.

[[folder:Opera]]

* Considering [[ProWrestlingIsReal the setting]], this is surprisingly rare in ''Manga/TigerMask'', and {{Justified}} by the wrestlers going through [[TrainingFromHell extremely harsh training]] well before being even ''considered'' for stepping on the ring, hence [[MadeOfIron being tough enough to survive it]]. That said, it does sometimes happen, and Tiger's Cave [[InvokedTrope does it on purpose to wrestlers who try to rebel (such as the title character) and those who fail to inflict the intended punishment to traitors, the former being killed on the ring]] or [[DrivenToSuicide suffering such injuries that they kill themselves]] and the latter being forced to a fight against multiple opponents.

A form of FatalMethodActing. Compare and contrast BloodSport, where death or carnage is the intended outcome. A related trope is DeadlySparring. Compare TakeMeOutAtTheBallGame, where death happens in a different sort of sporting competition.

* Yves Montand sang about "Battling Joe", a young boxer who, one night, becomes blind during a fight.

* The ''[[Literature/TheSaint Saint]]'' story "The Masked Angel" has a boxer die in the ring while being beaten up by a rival, all of whose opponents have mysteriously fought very poorly. It is eventually revealed that the killer boxer's manager was applying a drug to the man's gloves [[PoisonousFriend without his knowledge]] that entered his opponents' bloodstreams when their skin was broken and sedated them. The death, however, is explicitly described as entirely due to physical injuries and not the drug.

* An episode of ''Series/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' has the vampires rig a boxing match by hypnotizing the boxers so that their chosen one wins. The end result is that the boxer they chose to win hits his opponent hard enough to decapitate him.

** Much later Issei, driven beyond reason by [[BerserkButton seeing his comrades picked off one by one]], comes within milliseconds of [[CurbStompBattle atomizing Sairaorg's Queen in a single blow]], stopped only by Sairaorg himself forcing his piece to retire. Issei shows no remorse in the aftermath, but Sairaorg doesn't hold a grudge -- he was the one who requests the rules be relaxed to the point Issei could even use that much power.

* The ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "Baby, You Knock Me Out" has Deirdre Jackson, a female boxer who killed three of her opponents in the ring and planned to make Lois her fourth.

A form of FatalMethodActing. Compare and contrast BloodSport, where death or carnage is the intended outcome. A related trope is DeadlySparring.

* On March 24, 1962, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Paret Benny Paret]] suffered fatal head injuries in his [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Paret_vs._Emile_Griffith_III Benny Paret third bout]] with Emile Griffith. Referee Ruby Goldstein did not stop the fight when it became clear that Paret couldn't defend himself and Griffith landed twenty-nine consecutive punches before Paret fell through the ropes and the referee called a TKO. Paret collapsed in his corner, was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, and died ten days later from massive brain hemorrhaging. This and another fatal bout in 1963 that cost the life of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Moore_(boxer,_born_1933) Davey Moore]] led to the decline of boxing in the state of New York for almost a decade.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Rodriguez_(American_boxer) Francisco Rodriguez]] collapsed after his fight with Teon Kennedy was stopped after the tenth round. He was rushed to the hospital for surgery, but died two days later.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Flores Benjamin Flores]] suffered a brain injury during his fight with Al Seeger which led to his death five days later.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leavander_Johnson Leavander Johnson's]] 2005 fight against Jesus Chavez was stopped in the eleventh round after Johnson received a barrage of punches from Chavez. He collapsed in his dressing room shortly after the fight. After a surgery to correct a subdural hematoma, he was placed in a medically-induced coma. He was taken off life support and died five days after the fight.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Owen Johnny Owen]] died in 1980 after suffering irreparable brain damage during a bout with Lupe Pintor. It was discovered that Owen had an unusually delicate skull but a strong jaw and the jaw had been driven into his brain during the fight.

* In the case of UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts, 30-year-old Michael Kirkham died from a brain hemorrhage after his pro debut, a TKO loss after being taken down and ground-and-pounded -- all legal strikes. but it would be later revealed that only a month before he'd been medically suspended (for thirty-days, this was after the suspension) after a TKO loss from strikes to the back of the head in his last amateur bout; on top of that, he was fighting in South Carolina where the sport had only recently become formally sanctioned but where neither a full physical nor a neurological test were required for a fighter's license, and most noticeably, he was fighting at lightweight (155 lbs) despite being ''six foot nine'', making him dangerously lanky (and possibly having dehydrated, or "dried out," to make 155).

* Not only boxers and wrestlers are at risk. On July 28th, 1982, fencers Matthias Behr of West Germany and Vladimir Smirnov of the Soviet Union were facing off in the team foil events. Both attacked into each other, and during the action, Behr's blade broke, pierced Smirnov's mask, and went [[EyeScream through his eye orbit]] into his brain. Smirnov was kept on life support for nine days so he would not die during the tournament. Since this incident, safety standards have been increased dramatically.

A form of FatalMethodActing. Compare and contrast BloodSport, where death or carnage is the intended outcome.

** Much later, Issei, driven beyond reason by [[BerserkButton seeing his comrades picked off one by one]] comes within milliseconds of [[CurbStompBattle atomizing Sairaorg's Queen in a single blow]], stopped only by Sairaorg himself forcing his piece to retire and showing no remorse in the aftermath.[[note]]Sairaorg doesn't complain - he was the one who requests the rules be relaxed to the point Issei could even use that much power.[[/note]]

%% The following are all zero context and rely on weblinks. Please do not uncomment them without expanding them.
%%** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Rodriguez_(American_boxer) Francisco Rodriguez]]
%%** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Flores Benjamin Flores]]