Death Battle Balrog vs TJ Combo Reaction 

The closest we get to a Muhammad Ali vs. Mike Tyson match

One of the BEST Death Battles they've animated. People always want fights with supernatural abilities, or planet-destroying feats. But the way I see it. It doesn't matter what the fighters have. Just how well it can be portrayed. And there ain't no substitution for a good old face pounding.

Fun fact: The announcer in the fight says "TJ is back up with his last breath!". In Killer Instinct, TJ has a mechanic specific to him called "Last Breath", where if he dies with a full bar of Instinct, he will get back up one last time with a small amount of health to try and stage an epic comeback. They did their research with this fight.

Probably good to clarify that Balrog is a villain while TJ is an anti hero. While, yes, Balrog is absolutely who is always just himself all the time, when offered to join an evil organization, he took it just for the money. TJ did chest, has far too much pride, and slacked off, but he was faced with an evil organization, TJ chose to fight them. His motives are far from selfless, but he ultimately made a choice to not end up like Balrog

This fight really hits different. The characterization, the fight animations, and how competitive this felt really makes this feel like a match between the two. Badass fight!

Going back to your pre-match conversation, to be fair yes both are cheaters who were/are addicted to winning. TJ learned from his mistakes after his outing hence why he ripped his Ultratech implants out himself to atone. Then teamed with the good guys like Orchid to bring down UT, the second most powerful force in Killer Instinct. While Balrog helped start & at one point attempted to run arguably THE most powerful evil organization in Street Fighter. And don't forget that while TJ & Balrog used unsavory tactics, Balrog was the only one to actually kill one of his opponents in the ring and showed zero remorse and wouldn't hesitate to do it again at any time.

This was the most grounded Death Battle imo. Nothing too flashy and a well rounded flight.

fun fact: the song that plays during the fight is called "back to rise" and it's TJ's theme from killer instinct. also, if you wanna look at some good boxing, i'd highly recommend looking up one of the greatest triolgies in boxing: mickey ward vs. artuor gotti. also also, if you wanna see some strange but entertaining boxing, i'd look up a boxer named emanuel augustus, aka "the drunken master".

“He got to kill a guy and drink all day! Talk about living the life.” (Bethany looks at her drink, realizes she just needs to kill a guy)

Don't forget this is TJ after he ripped the metal plates out of his arms because he was ashamed of cheating.

Ya'll kept getting on TJ for cheating but he's never killed his opponent and got too keep doing his thing unlike Balrog

Welcome to the wild world of Killer Instinct! Get ready for more Deathbattles involving them, because they are likely on the way in the newest season!

I picked TJ over balrog. For TJ as a character yes he did cheat but in the end he found redemption in someway. Balrog doesn’t get any warm fuzzies from me because well for one he’s a dick for punching and killing an elephant, he’s works for an evil organization who’s lead by a dick, he fights dirty and for those things I can’t root for him. So TJ FTW!

This is one of my favorites from this season! Nice choice!

This is one of my favorite Death Battles. I was pulling for Balrog and while I ended up surprised by T J combos I was actually more surprised how much real boxing was taken into this fight with the breakdown of the Triangle theory of boxing.

TJ Combo wanted to stop cheating and "go clean" so he ripped his cybernetic arms out unaware of the healing factor. TJ Combo USED to cheat that's why this matchup works .

Surprised they didn't mention Balrog was originally called M. Bison, a reference to Mike Tyson. But gave it to the boss character to avoid potential lawsuits. Also makes more sense with the nickname the Wild Buffalo.

Balrog: I'm going to take the Title! TJ Combo: YOU'LL SHALL NOT PASS!

One of my personal fav fights

Honestly this fight is top 10 death battles of all time. This was early production and they gave us great animation behind it. Plus….it was nothing but straight hands!!

this is probably the the most suprising one to me for being such a great episode. like i don't know a single person who actually cared about this matchup, yet the episode is great. its kinda like how i felt about goku black vs reverse flash now that i think of it

Possibly one of my top 3 favorite Death Battles, and the music is godly.

I'm starting to notice, M. Bison/Balrog, isn't just modeled after Mike Tyson, in a way, he's evil George Foreman.

This is one of my favorite death battles

This one is most anticipated....from this guy.

They often have their own music made for these videos, but this time they just got TJ's Theme from Killer Instinct. Cause its an absolute banger.

What a brutal fight o-o He really Johnny Cage'd him lol :0 Not to mention, TJ's theme was playing during all the fight lol :3

In Japan, Balrog is called Michael Bison ... because ... Tyson. The name changes in the west (along with Vega, a 3 way swap), has confused street fighter players for decades. XD

Thanks you both a lot for the reactions 😁

This battle achieved the impossible by saying it was a close fight… AND IT ACTUALLY WAS.

Oh I have been WAITING for this!

This is honestly one of my favorite Death battle 3D fight videos! ❤🎉

"...'til the damn chickens got him." 😂

Fun fact: This Death Battle’s fight was animated by famed animator Torrian Crawford, a 3D and mo-cap animator that has been animating a majority of Death Battle’s 3D fights. Some of his most notable fights include Superman VS Goku 2, Deadpool VS Deathstroke, Wolverine VS Raiden, Dante VS Bayonetta, Power Rangers VS Voltron and many more.

This was one of the CLOSEST FIGHTS (by Death Battle's own logic) in the show's history, only being beat out by Scarlet Witch vs Zatanna and Gogeta vs Vegito

The best part of the match is there playing TJ Combo song the whole time. KI soundtrack is a fing banger!

I like that they made it an actual boxxing match

One of the best Death Battles for sure🥊

It’s always easier to root for the more heroic contestant in DB. even though I never played killler instinct, I hoped Balrog would lose

Hands-down one of the best death battles ever made

TJ Combo is more redeemable in my opinion

Lovely as always! Would love to see Vergil vs Zephiroth sometime soon, specially since you two are familiar with Devil May cry

I don't know if anyone was listening close to the kickass music in the background but holy hell does Killer Instinct go hard with it's music. Especially TJ Combo's music. It is so freaking awesome.

To this day this is still one of my top 3 favorite all time episodes of Death Battle. It’s more entertaining than any boxing match that’s happened in the last 20 years

Finally the match i wanted you guys to see...best boxing based fighters of fiction

First time i see Beth's jaw drop for 5 sec straight

Balrog cheats all the time as well, in fact he cheats MORE than TJ Combo does. The headbutt Balrog does is 100% an illegal move, also stepping on a person's toes is also an illegal move in boxing. Balrog does both of these with zero hesitation and is concerned with winning more than TJ is mostly because he does it for the money while TJ wins for his pride. The reason why he lost to Dudley is because of this cheating. Also just remembered this but his greed for money is so great that he took a kid that was being experimented on just for the sake of selling him for huge amounts of money, and when he found the kid couldn't do anything special he called him useless. Now eventually he did raise the kid and teach him boxing but he never apologized for what he said or did to the kid.

I like how this was simply a regular match until Balrog killed/knocked out the ref, turning it into a death match with no rules. TJ stops holding back after that. Balrog isn't disqualified because the two evil corporations are sponsoring the match- they have a vested interest in TJ's death. Little Mac being a swarmer seems to go against most of his opponents being sluggers- this actually lines up with Little Mac being the underdog who wins against the odds.

This is my favorite one I've seen.

Balrog was supposed to be the name of M. Bison. and this boxer was supposed to be called Mike Bison (like Mike Tyson). dunno why they switched it for no reason.

Super happy they're taking a peek at KI. Love that game so much

Still in my top 8 fave DBs to this day

Ahhh... I love Killer Instinct, and King of Fighters. The only fighting games I'm really into. And Tekken. But this battle was sooo well made, it really does feel like an actual boxing match. I loved it.

what i like about this Death Battle is that they treated it like an actual boxing match. until Balrog killed the ref...still, it's really good. :D

Ok so for clarity after TJ struck his deal with ultratech he unwillingly became their labrat, basically they tortured him with their experiments for years so when they told him to lose to fulgore he decided to just destroy fulgore instead as a way of spiting them.

With your fascination with Death Battle and Dragon Ball, I would love to see your reaction to Hercule Satan (DBZ) vs Dan Habiki (Street Fighter).

Another one that makes my top 5 list. Why? Because it’s actually one of the closer battles I’ve seen. Until the end, you really don’t know who will win, since they seem so evenly matched.

You should react to the Yang VS Tifa Death Battle

Balrog is a murderous psychopath, and he cheats even more than Tj. At least Tj is repentant and is actively trying to make up for it. I'd say that neither are necessarily good people, but it's a solid case of bad versus worse, with Tj having the moral high ground.

YES YES YES IVE BEEN WAITING ON THIS!!!!

Two Death Battle suggestions: Android 18 vs Captain Marvel Beerus vs Sailor Galaxia

I like the creativity.

The fact that the fight starts with TJ's music playing is a huge hint in hindsight.

Lets get ready to rumble!

Trust me real life boxing isn't as exciting. Also the background music is TJ Combo's theme.

FINALLY! Y'all are reacting to one of the best Deathbattles rosterteeth ever did.

This was a good reaction.

My favorite Death Battle in the series

Which episode that you guys watched so far u like the most

Undisputed! 🥊

I mean considering TJ ripped the implants out with his bare hands and went natural for the rest of life kinda shows TJ isn't the guy he used to be. In fact I'm pretty sure he's actually one of the good guys in the KI storyline helping take down Ultratech and standing up against the more supernatural forces of the KI universe on behalf of humanity. Of the two here, TJ is the good guy, glad he won. Also fun note: TJ was strictly only punching and treating the match like an official fight at the start. It wasn't until Balrog pulled an illegal move and punched out the ref did TJ start using his full arsenal of moves like his grapples and kicks.

Now you finished DBZA, I hope you will do Mr Satan vs Dan death battle.

I'm not the biggest boxing fan, but i do like boxers in video games and this fight got me pumped!🥊

One of my favorites

Just so you 2 know Death Battle will be coming back for it's next season on the 22nd of this month

As a boxer myself, seeing them show pictures of Tyson while saying "sacrifice mobility and finesse" and implying he's an example of a slugger made me die a little inside. Tyson is one of the most technically gifted, defensive attackers of all time. I actually really liked this one. It's obviously very comic bookey because of who the characters are, but they're absolutely boxing each other. It's not just animated like a generic fist fight; you can tell it's two trained boxers fighting. This might be the best animated fight they've ever done. I enjoy the respect to boxing, even if they did Mike Tyson kinda dirty :D (they even invoked the Triangle theory, so I'm glad they actually looked into boxing itself and not just the characters). Boxing is an art form. It's the most technical martial art ever invented. A skilled boxer can stand there and make an opponent miss all day without even seeming to move that much. Of course, there are levels within boxing and not every fighter is going to put on a good show. But when you've got two skilled boxers in the ring, it's a thing a beauty. I'd recommend giving it a try.

Probably my favorite Death Battle.

One of the best DB episodes ever.

Reverse flash vs goku black will be the complete trilogy of the flashes please 🌩

19:36 ULLLTRAAAAAAA COOMMBOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

It's unfortunate that TJ's past cheating was held so strongly against him that his redemption was overlooked for the most part when it came to who to root for. At least it was acknowledged at the very end after winning fair and square.

She seems to forget Bolroge was a murderer 😂 also he cheats to it legit said that

Bare knuckles fighting, hell yes

If you liked the cinematic way they captured boxing from this, I suggest you watch Hajime no Ippo. It is a boxing anime that is very good and enjoyable for those even if they don't like the sport all that much.

Boxing truly is never as interesting as what you just watched. I tell all my friends this, but I've watched several documentaries about different WWE superstars, and I would roll my eyes every time Vince McMahnon would say " I don't run (or work in) a wrestling business. I run a sports entertainment business." The moment I understood what he really meant came when I watched Mayweather vs Pacquiao and was absolutely bored to tears. That said, if you still want to check a boxing event one of these days, wait for the next creator clash to see popular youtubers beat on each other, or keep your eyes on Happy Punch shows by Keemstar

The way I see it TJ is less a bad guy and more around the lines of an anti-hero. he's not good or bad but he does what he thinks needs to be done while still having a decently working moral compass. Balrog is just a dirty boxer. Doesn't matter how he wins, as long as he get's the title belt and money, he'll do it. A good way to define this is actually in there backstories. Balrog got revenge and never looked back, TJ got revenge, and chose to start humble as a Janitor. TJ was never bad..but he was never good either if that makes any sort of sense.

A lot of people requested for Jax from MK to be pitted agst TJ Combo instead they choose Balrog a boxer who is much weaker than TJ Combo

God I love TJ he's so cool.

Bethany gives amazing explanations.

I think Wiz meant more evil Walmart.

Sanji vs Rock Lee

19:20

Death battles are awesome balrog is awesome street fighter vs killer instinct will you please react to carranger ep 11

Tj combo may have cheated at first, be he understands now doing it can cost you.

Day two asking for an ogryn story by warrior tear

Guile vrs Jax pls!

balrog was more a cheater than tj 😅 tj cheat when he As à child but he truly love Boxing and work to repair that xhild mistaie

faltó DUDLEY

Boxing in the ring is more exciting not gonna lie

Reaction death battle shao Kahn vs akuma please