Bodybuilder Who Died During Steven Lim Boxing Match Had Died of Natural Causes

If you’d have remembered, back in 2017, Steven Lim and bodybuilder Pradip Subramanian made news after they were announced to be sparring in a celebrity muay thai bout during the Asia Fighting Championship.

It was initially supposed to be Steven Lim against former Singapore Idol contestant Sylvester Sim, but he withdrew two days before the fight, stating that he encountered insurance coverage issues.

Mr Pradip was thus announced as his replacement. There was a lot of hype about the match because, well, it involved Steven Lim.

Everyone was placing their bets on who would win, but unfortunately, something tragic happened after the match.

31-year-old Singaporean Mr Pradip, president of the World Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation, died of cardiomegaly – an enlarged heart – with abnormal heart rhythms.

What Happened

Before the match, Mr Pradip had gone for a medical screening and was confirmed to be fit for the match.

As such, he made a declaration that he did not have any adverse medical conditions and was as fit as ever.

On the actual day of the match with Steven Lim, Mr Pradip went through another medical screening by an on-site doctor just to make sure everything was okay.

Once again, he was deemed to be fit and he proceeded to enter the ring with Mr Lim at around 8.10pm.

10 minutes later, Mr Lim was declared the winner and Mr Pradip suddenly collapsed against the padded corner column of the ring.

Sensing that something was wrong, he was immediately sent to the Singapore General Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead at 9.51pm.

Many people questioned the cause of his death. Was Steven Lim really that strong to have killed someone? But if he died of a medical condition, why didn’t his previous two medical screenings indicate anything wrong with him?

The Autopsy

After close to two and a half years, we finally have an answer.

State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam reported that Mr Pradip did indeed die of a natural cause.

Dr Wu Jia Hao is an associate consultant forensic pathologist from the Health Sciences Authority and was the one who performed Mr Pradip’s autopsy. Dr Wu explained that genetic screening for inheritable cardiac conditions showed a pathogenic variant in the KCNQ1 gene.

This means that he had a genetic mutation that was associated with abnormal function of the ion channels in his heart muscle, thus leading to abnormal heart rhythms.

According to Dr Wu, these could have increased Mr Pradip’s chances of having acute abnormal heart rhythms, ultimately causing him to suffer sudden cardiac death.

State Coroner Kamala also shared that two medical experts found that the screening was enough.

She said, “The on-site doctor would not have been able to detect Mr Pradip’s medical condition as it would have required an ECG (electrocardiogram) to have been conducted. Both independent medical experts noted that Mr Pradip had not reported any symptoms related to cardiomegaly to the on-site doctor during the pre-match medical screening. The second independent medical expert also stated that the medical attention provided on-site was adequate and timely.”

Now, it’s official that Mr Pradip had died of natural causes during his bout with Steven Lim.

Learning from this, perhaps we should all do a full-body checkup soon just to ensure that we’re alright. It never hurts to be safe.