History Main / ForcedPrizeFight

* ''ThePunisher'' went through this once. While chasing a mob goon across rooftops, both of them end up crashing into a ring where they're forced to team up to survive. At the end of the story, the thug thinks he has won Frank's respect, but the next day, Frank tracks him down and kills him.

* In ''Discworld/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'', the clan leader Hamnpork ends up taken to a rat-coursing pit, and Darktan ends up organizing a rescue.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'', the prize is "graduation", i.e. "being able to leave high school[=/=]jail alive. The objective: kill your classmate without getting caught.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'':

** Similarly, Pullo is forced into the Gladiator arena as punishment for a murder. Totally disheartened, he refuses to even lift his sword and waits for execution. The other gladiators taunt him until they find his BerserkButton: taunting his old Legion. He promptly kills them, earning his CrowningMomentOfAwesome. One final gladiator comes out to finish the job, only Lucius Vorenus ''jumps into the ring'' and earns '''his''' CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

Combatants are forced by the "powers that be" to brawl, box or otherwise fight. Sometimes to the death. TheHero is sometimes caught up in it all or may deliberately go in undercover to expose the racket.

A common variation has our hero assigned to a trainer, in order to prepare him for his most deadly fight -- when the fight commences, he discovers that his trainer is to be his opponent.

See also: DeadlyGame, GladiatorGames, TheBoxingEpisode, HuntingTheMostDangerousGame, DavidVersusGoliath, AchillesHeel, TournamentArc, InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath and possibly CombatByChampion. If prisoners are involved it's a CondemnedContestant fighting to WinYourFreedom. May take place in TheThunderdome.

* There's the trainer variation in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', [[spoiler: where [[LargeHam Jack Rakan]] turns out to be the final match out of the Ostia tournament]]. It was [[PlayingWithATrope almost]] going to be used in the [[TournamentArc Mahora Fest]], but then [[spoiler: Evangeline got knocked out by Setsuna.]] [[SureLetsGoWithThat But she MEANT for that to happen.]]

* ''ThePunisher'' went through this once. While chasing a mob goon across roof tops, both of them end up crashing into a ring where they're forced to team up to survive. At the end of the story, the thug thinks he has won Frank's respect, but the next day Frank tracks him down and kills him.

* The 2009 ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'' film has one of these in the robot games. [[spoiler:As you can probably guess, the titular boy ends up in them against his will. He (unwillingly) destroys almost every robot sent against him - until Zog shows up. Fortunately, Zog won't fight him either.]]

* ''Film/{{Tron}}'': The [[MasterComputer Master Control Program]] forces other living programs who defy it to participate in video games-which for a program are battles to the death.
* Max must participate on one against Blaster in the eponymous Thunderdome in ''Film/MadMaxBeyondThunderdome''

* ''Film/{{Unleashed}}'' (aka ''Danny the Dog'')-- Danny (played by Jet Li) is entered into such a tournament by the gangster who essentially owns him.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is this with a twist - the fight to the death involves children aged 12 to 18, and it's also televised nationwide as a mandatory-viewing RealityShow.

* ''Series/RacketSquad'': in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB2iVqJ5ed0 'The Knock-Out']] a con game group stages [[TheBoxingEpisode boxing]] [[ForcedPrizefight fights]] that are said to be rigged. During the fight the victim attends, one of the fighters fakes his death in the ring. Then the victim is convinced that going to the police or Boxing Commission will result in everybody being indicted for manslaughter.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', "Arena", "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and several others.

* Video game example (Subversion?): In ''BreathOfFireIII'', the main character is put into this situation, in the "win or die" version. He ''loses'', but as he is the prize demanded by the winner, he is let off the hook.

* Some of the Franchise/{{Superman}}/TheFlash races were like this.

* Virtually any gladiator movie
* In ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', it is {{implied}} that SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker has the thugs of a crime boss he has just killed fight to the death with a broken pool cue, as he "only had one opening" in the gang he was forming. Being the Joker, it was almost certainly [[ForTheEvulz for his own amusement]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', "The Cat and the Canary" and "Grudge Match". Both featured a secret underground super-powered fighting circuit run by the villainess Roulette. The latter episode resorted to [[{{Brainwashed}} mind control]] to effect [[FanService girl]]-on-[[FetishFuel girl]] {{Catfight}}s.

* The second episode of ''WeissKreuz'' is based on this trope: Fujimiya Aya goes undercover as a participant in so-called Human Chess prizefights.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', "Tsunkatse". Includes the trainer-becomes-opponent bit. And a guest appearance from [[DwayneJohnson The Rock]]! (fighting Seven Of Nine. No weight classes here!)

[[folder: Film ]]

* The 2009 ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'' film has one of these in the robot games. [[spoiler:As you can probably guess, the titular boy ends up in them against his will. He (unwillingly) destroys almost every robot sent against him - until Zog shows up. Fortunately, Zog won't fight him either.]]

* ''Film/EscapeFromLA'' (In a variation, Snake Plissken, an unbeatable dirty fighter, has to win a steel-cage ''basketball game'' in order to escape. The danger coming from the fact that if he doesn't make enough goals, he gets shot to pieces)
** Notably, the game is ''impossible'': it requires scoring 25 points (standard basketball rules apply), crossing the court each time, in ''60 seconds''. Which makes the fact that Snake ''succeeds'' all the more badass.
*** The last shot is full-court, and Creator/KurtRussell ''actually made the shot in real life''.
** In the first Plissken film, ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'', it's a more conventional boxing/wrestling match he's forced to participate in.

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** Notably, the game is ''impossible'': it requires scoring 25 points (standard basketball rules apply), crossing the court each time, in ''60 seconds''. Which makes the fact that Snake ''succeeds'' all the more BadAss.

* ''FriskyDingo'': "Penultimate Fighting" has Killface and Barnaby (i.e. Xander Crews) forced to fight to the death to get Simon back.

* ''Series/RackedSquad'': in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB2iVqJ5ed0 'The Knock-Out']] a con game group stages [[TheBoxingEpisode boxing]] [[ForcedPrizefight fights]] that are said to be rigged. During the fight the victim attends, one of the fighters fakes his death in the ring. Then the victim is convinced that going to the police or Boxing Commission will result in everybody being indicted for manslaughter.

* The concept behind the Dark Side Club in TheDCU.

* In #3 of the ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales Presents Robyn Hood'' ongoing series, Robyn and Red are captured by a gang of supernatural creatures and forced to battle each other in a barbed wire cage match.

* Happened in a ''SamuraiJack'' episode when he was very much forced into fighting in "The Dome of Doom."
** Also occured in another episode with a twist: Jack had been [[{{Animorphism}} transformed into a chicken]].

* Similar to the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'' examples below, the Roulette storylines in ''[[JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]]'' and ''[[Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica JLA Classified]]''.

* ''{{Megas XLR}}'' features this trope in two episodes, wherein Coop must fight other robots and ultimately the promoter, Magnanimous (expertly voiced by character actor Bruce Campbell).