The Bloodiest Moments In Sports

Why do we like blood so much? That’s not to say that we enjoy seeing anyone get hurt, but as long as they aren’t permanently injured or disfigured, we like it.

Blood raises the stakes, makes the moment feel more intense and makes the effort feel more tangible. Without question, blood makes a moment more memorable, even when it’s in an otherwise mundane setting. So with that in mind, I scoured the Internet for the bloodiest moments in sports. I respect that I might not have captured them all, but what I attempted to do was give a little variety(I could have done a whole story on MMA blood) to the field.

Enjoy. If there is something that should be on here that isn’t, call it out. With that said, let’s get to the blood. 

20. Anything Rugby

Forgive me for not knowing rugby better than I do, but it was hard to pick out a single moment where the blood was memorable. Let’s just say this, rugby's slogan is “Give Blood. Play Rugby.” The blood is built into the fabric and it ranks as the bloodiest ball sport on the planet. But without a signature or iconic moment, it stays here in bottom spot. 

19. Claude Lemieux Cheap Shots Kris Draper

There is no doubt that Lemieux put a vicious and unnecessary hit on Draper.  However, with two other hockey moments making the top 20, I had to leave this one out. This hit gave Draper a broken nose, a broken cheekbone and it no doubt resulted in a sea of blood. However, there is no visual evidence to support that, so we’ll move it to here. 

18. Tyler Hansbrough Breaks His Nose

I’m sure Gerald Henderson isn’t the first guy who wanted to bloody up Psycho T, but he is the most famous. His foul, which got him ejected, slammed Hansbrough to floor, causing him to look like he had just gone twelve rounds with the heavyweight champ.

Hansbrough would recover and North Carolina ended up winning the game, but for one moment, someone got the best of college’s most popular player. 

17. John Terry Gets Punted by Abou Diaby

Talk about taking one for the team. When John Terry tried to put a ball in goal with his head, he was met with a foot trying to keep it out of there. The video is a little cringeworthy, but not the worst on this list. Here is the footage. You have to look closely, but that blood is there.

Blood? Getting kicked in the face? Who said that Americans can’t embrace soccer?

16. Steve Nash Gets His Nose Broken

Steve Nash is the perfect example of making the moment bigger than it is. As the Suns were taking on the Spurs, Nash got himself uglied by splitting open his nose during a collision with Tony Parker. No one can remember who won that game,(Spurs, we’d guess) but many remember the site of Nash’s busted nose.

15. Bryce Florie Gets Hit With Line Drive

Here’s the perfect example of how blood can make two other unmemorable guys memorable. When Ryan Thompson hit a line drive back to Bryce Florie, then playing for the Boston Red Sox, no one expected that he wouldn’t have the reaction time to play defense. The result was a screaming line drive right off of Florie’s face. The incident and the after-picture were both memorable. 

14. Jessica Dube Gets Skate in the Face

This bloodiest moment makes the list because, how often is a bloody moment a part of the figure skating world? When Jessica Dube and her partner were in the middle of a routine, he got a little too close in the middle of a….move?

Regardless, she was cut by his skate right across the face and dropped a serious amount of blood on the rink. The blood is not as visible here, but the accident itself is ugly. 

13. Matt Howard Bloodied for Butler

Who says that underneath the basket isn’t a dangerous place? The Butler big man got caught with a vicious elbow and made Psycho T’s broken nose look like a cut on the arm. He got stitched up in the locker room, but never returned. 

12. Kazushi Sakuraba Vs. Ricardo Arona

Prior to this fight with Sakuraba, Ricardo Arona was best known for getting slammed by Rampage Jackson. However, that all changed when these two stepped into the ring. Knowing he was the bigger and stronger fighter, Arona decided to take control in the second half of the first round. He delivered several knees to the skull and the result was a bloody mess. 

11. Triple H Vs. Ric Flair

Look, I could do an entire slideshow dedicated to Ric Flair, “The Greatest Bleeder of Any Generation.” Not only does he bleed easily, but he bleeds so profusely that he makes a shaving cut look like a stab wound. It was hard to pick out one moment where Flair’s bleeding stood out amongst the others, but this clip will do as Triple H took him out to the woodshed and Flair was his own sea of red. 

10. Hector Lombard Vs. Jared Hess

There isn’t much to say about this fight. It’s just the same old story. Guy(Hess) says he’s the toughest guy and can be up his opponent(Lombard), but then they get into the ring and the guy who thought he could win gets beat like he stole something. The result is not only a L in the loss column, but its also a hell of a bloody picture. At least there was something to take. 

9. Richard Zednik Cut By Skate

There is nothing scarier than a blade to the throat. While a hockey game has that potential, it’s rarely a reality. However, for Richard Zednik, a random blade came across the throat as players were hitting the ice and the blood came out everywhere. You have to be watching as they show it over and over in slow motion, but you can see the blood gush out as he heads toward the ice.

8. Shawn Michaels Undertaker Bad Blood

These two have had the most legendary matches in Wrestlemania history, but the bloodiest match they’ve ever had came at 1997’s Bad Blood. Here, they fought in a steel cage match and as always, didn’t disappoint. They went toe-to-toe and what remained was Michaels being helped off, face covered in blood. 

7. B.J. Penn Vs. Diego Sanchez

The real tragedy isn’t that Sachez got ripped open like a piñata because of a vicious knee to the forehead. What’s worse is that it didn’t even have to come to that. B.J. Penn was never in danger of losing that fight. Through five rounds, he owned Sanchez. That cut made it not only medically necessary, but merciful that the refs would put him out of his misery.

6. Sean Sherk Vs. Kenny Florian

Call me crazy, but it’s usually the guy who is bloodied the most that should lose the fight, but that wasn’t  the case here. Even though Sherk looked like he had just spent the night at a slaughterhouse, he managed to beat Kenny Florian by unanimous decision. Maybe it was Florian’s blood he had on him. 

5. Eddie Guerrero Vs. JBL

Before he passed away, Eddie Guerrero was known as one of the best entertainers of all time. That may have been because he emptied the tank every time. So it’s not surprise that when he fought JBL for the strap at Judgement day, he’d leave himself a tired mess. Just looking at the footage here makes us remember, that blood loss is one thing about wrestling that is real. 

4. Mick Foley Vs. Terry Funk, Exploding Barb Wire Match

I could say a lot here, but I’ll just say this: if you have an exploding barb wire match and you aren’t bleeding by the end of it, something has gone horribly wrong. Enjoy. 

3. BJ Penn Vs. Joe Stevenson

Talk about a fight that was really over from the start. BJ Penn had this fight under control from the moment they started. At the end of the first round, Penn hit Stevenson with a nasty elbow that not only opened him, but sealed his fat. 

2. Undertaker Vs. Brock Lesnar

Talk about an absolute blood bath. While  wrestling might have it’s detractors, there is no one who can say that wrestling isn’t a brutal sport when it wants to be. These two men faced off in WWE’s trademark “Hell in a Cell.” The Undertaker had the best of Brock early and opened him quickly, but when Lesnar hit the Dead Man with steel steps he opened him up and both men let the bleeding begin. 

1. Clint Malarchuk Gets Throat Cut

Warning! I consider myself a guy with a pretty strong stomach and I can watch a lot of things. Watching this makes me uncomfortable. There is a lot you can say about this, but there isn’t much to say. The video speaks for itself. Just the amount of blood that pours out makes this number one with a bullet.