15 Biggest Sports Brawls Ever

In a February 2007 game between the Senators and the Sabres, goalies Ray Emery and Martin Biron engaged in a quick fight that saw Emery emerge victorious with a smirk on his face. That would soon change thanks to Sabres giant Andrew Peters, known to knock faces in general off, whether smirking or otherwise. Once in the penalty box, Emery’s frown turned back upside down.

A “friendly” exhibition game between the teams from China and Brazil in 2010 was anything but. Tempers flared throughout, and it escalated to the point where the Chinese players ganged up and stomped on Brazilians. Watching the game, you can see that they were probably better off fighting; their basketball skills appeared to be on par with a that of a third-grade gym class.

In December 2006, the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets were getting close to the end of a game that the Knicks had no chance at winning. They decided that this, if any time, would be a fine time for a brawl. Seven players were suspended for a total of 42 games, and nobody was more excited than the dude in white on the bottom left hand side of the video.

In March 1997, the Red Wings and Avalanche had a game that was a brawl waiting to happen. The teams had been sparring in the newspapers about an incident from earlier in the season, Detroit wanted Claude Lemieux taken out, and the shots were indeed taken. A bloodied Patrick Roy at the hands of Detroit goalie Mike Vernon is the highlight in this one.

Hothead Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy decided he had to get in the middle of a budding brawl between his team and Alonzo Mourning’s Miami Heat during the 1998 NBA Playoffs. Here he is discussing what he was thinking. One thing is for sure: the coach’s hair has never looked better.

The Georgetown Hoyas college basketball team was soundly handling a professional team from China, and apparently the pros didn’t like that very much. The game became a brawl with water bottles flying, chairs raised overhead and men down on the ground being stomped. And they say we can’t achieve world peace.

A few years after the huge brawl that saw Ron Artest in the crowd in Auburn Hills, another fight happened at the Palace, this time with the women. It started with Candace Parker and Plenette Pierson getting tangled up after free throws, and ended with a bench-clearing brawl that saw coach Rick Mahorn push Lisa Leslie out of the way, sending her flying to the floor.

The Lakers and Rockets were in the middle of an eventful game on December 9, 1977. A brawl broke out after some normal elbows turned more physical, and Rudy Tomjanovich came running over to help his fellow Rockets team member. He ended up running into probably the most devastating punch in basketball history as Kermit Washington laid him out and left him in a pool of his own blood.

The Islanders were already beating up on the Penguins with an 8-2 score, so when a fight broke out, it only made sense that they would continue to beat up on them physically. The Isles’ Michael Haley wrestled Maxime Talbot to the ground and roughed him up. Once that fight was cleared, he was left on the ice alone with Pens goalie Brent Johnson. Clearly one-on-one wasn’t enough, as they had to gang up on Haley to ensure no casualties.

Orioles pitcher Armando Benitez gave up a home run to Bernie Williams, so as one of baseball’s dumbest traditions goes, he had to bean the next batter. He hit Tino Martinez and decided that he wanted to brawl, so he tossed away his glove and prepared for war. I don’t think he expected the 8-foot-10 Graeme Lloyd (actually 6-foot-8, but it sure doesn't look like that on video) to come running in his teammate’s defense, but Lloyd came to fight.

I’m not exactly sure what brought this on, but the players on the Giants and Dodgers seemed upset enough on a hot August afternoon in 1965 to bring their bats to this bench-clearing brawl. Baseball fights in the 1960s were awesome.

In one of the more famous baseball scuffles in history, Nolan Ryan hit a young Robin Ventura in the back during a game in 1993, and Ventura decided that the smart thing to do was to run up to the legendary veteran, who responded by getting a headlock and landing a myriad of punches to the top of Ventura’s head. Ryan literally took Robin under his wing that day.

It was St. Patrick’s Day in 1991, and the Blackhawks and Blues may have been out celebrating before the start, because a hockey game ended up looking like a barroom brawl. When the dust started to settle, they got back to play, but no hockey fight can end that easily. Fights continued all over the ice, with the best one-on-one action coming between legendary tough guy Scott Stevens and Dave Manson.

It started with Pedro Martinez beaning one player and acting like he did it specifically because he wanted to fight. Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens threw a ball high and not even a little inside, so Manny Ramirez decided that he had to fight. Don Zimmer, may the crazy old man RIP, seemed to forget that he was an older gentleman when the brawl started. He charged at Pedro, who sidestepped him and barely touched him as he fell to the ground.

Ron Artest has never been known to be a beacon of good decisions, but it was the Pistons’ Ben Wallace who decided to start what has come to be known as the biggest brawl in sports history. Artest fouled him, so Wallace exploded toward him. Artest ended up in the crowd and other players including Rasheed Wallace followed. A fan threw a drink at Artest and sparked him to go out there, but there’s no excuse for such disgusting idiocy.