Humans have ruled the planet for thousands of years and have little to no competition from other animals. This is largely due to our large brains, propensity to violence and conquest, and our tools. But, what would happen if we tangled with the largest lizard in the world without these advantages? That’s what we’ll settle in this week’s edition of Fantasy Brawls. We’ll place unarmed humans (of varying athletic ability) in the Fantasy Brawls Battle Arena against a massive Komodo Dragon! Before we get started, let’s get the legal disclaimer out of the way.
With that out of the way, let’s get into the scenarios we’ll be covering today, starting with your average unarmed male from the United States. The second will be using an insanely powerful but still unarmed male from Iceland (the current largest producer of World Strongest Men). The final battle will use the same average guy from the states with a 6 inch knife. Let’s begin by examining Komodo's stat card.
The Komodo Dragon in this fight is 10 feet in length and weighs 205 pounds. It's a fully grown, healthy male with a mouth dripping in venom deadly enough to take out a Water Buffalo. Its tail is roughly half its body length and it can whip it with scary precision. This gives the dragon a nice ranged weapon to round out its already impressive arsenal.
It has 2 inch long, razor sharp claws that it uses for gripping opposing dragons and prey. The dragon is also a master grappler. Big male Komodos get into Olympic style grappling matches during territorial disputes. During these matches they use their massive tails as counterweights, making them much harder to knock off balance and throw. Here’s a quick breakdown of their stats.
The average guy in the United States stands about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs just under 200 pounds. According to BMI standards, this would mean the average male is obese. But BMI numbers don’t really mean much as body composition varies wildly. For example, Mike Tyson is around 5 foot 10 inches tall and fought at 220 pounds and was built like a Greek God.
But for this scenario, we won’t have Iron Mike brawling, instead it’ll be James from the Accounting department who maxes out on the bench press at 135 pounds, sports a 125 pound squat, and a 155 pound deadlift. An important element of this fight is grip strength and the average man from the U.S. possesses a squeeze of about 115 pounds.
The average strongman from Iceland stands between 6 foot 6 and 6 foot 9. They eat a ridiculous 8,000+ calories per day to maintain their over 350 pound frames. The average strongman will bench between 450 and 550 pounds. Squat between 770 and 900 pounds and deadlift up to 1,000 pounds. These behemoths have a grip strength between 350 and 500 pounds.
In a battle between an unarmed, untrained male of average height and weight, the Komodo Dragon would emerge victorious. Here’s why. A fight with a dragon, unlike a fight with a human, would not be decided by strikes. Instead, the human would have only two viable paths to victory: strangulation or blunt force trauma. The latter would only happen if the human was strong enough to lift the dragon by its tail and spin it hard enough to smack its head against a tree or another hard surface.
A feat like this would be impossible for an average American given that their three best lifts are nowhere near the 200 pound range. The act of lifting and swinging a large animal like the Komodo involves engaging your lats, traps, biceps, quads, obliques, and rhomboids heavily. You would essentially turn your body into a lifting and torque machine. Your average joe simply won’t have enough strength to muster such a feat.
This leaves strangulation. A rear naked choke would be the safest option as trying to slap a guillotine on a Komodo would likely result in either a venomous bite or 2 inch claws tattooing your torso. This choke, on humans at least, doesn’t require a ton of power (only around 11 pounds of force) when performed correctly and applied to the carotid arteries. The trachea requires around 33 pounds. But dragon necks are not like human necks.
Komodo Dragons have osteoderm armor surrounding their thick, girthy necks. And while no one has the exact number, we can estimate that it would take at least 250 pounds of force to give them a significant enough squeeze to do any real damage. Thus, the measly 115 pounds of gripping force excluded by the average American doesn’t come close.
In this fight, all the dragon needs to do is land a single bite and/or tail swipe to end the battle quickly, with minimal injury. As you can see, most men won’t stand a ghost of a chance against a Komodo, but what about the absolute strongest of us?
In a battle between the strongest unharmed human in the world and a Komodo Dragon, the strongman would win. Icelandic winners of Strongman competitions can lift 200 pounds (the Komodo Dragon’s weight) with ease. In addition, they possess enough gripping power (500 pounds of force) to crush the neck of a dragon if they secure a rear naked. Even if they miss this submission, they can, in theory, grab the dragon by its tail and spin it until it smacks its head against a tree trunk.
Though the match may end in a draw anyway as there aren’t many ways for the strongman to avoid being bitten by the dragon at least a couple of times. Grappling matches like these involve a ton of close contact. A missed attempt at a choke would likely result in some nasty bites. And without prompt medical attention the Icelandic giant will succumb to their wounds.
If an average human fought a Komodo Dragon with a knife, the Komodo would win about 7 out of 10 times. A knife is a very deadly weapon but it requires power, precision, and luck to be effective in this battle. The human will need to be strong enough to piece the armor of the dragon and the strike precise enough to hit something vital to the Komodo. All of this must be done while the dragon is thrashing and biting about.
Most people, even those with nerves of steel will have a hard time finding the right spot to strike. With the knife the average joe’s chances of survival and victory are higher, but still results in a loss on most occasions.
Komodo Dragons are enormous, fine tuned killing machines with deadly venom coursing through their bodies. Of the 4 billion men on the planet right now, only around 0.00017% of them have a chance of winning a fight against a Komodo Dragon. So that means most of you reading this have no chance of being nothing more than dragon food in a fight with this legendary beast.
If you enjoyed this matchup and want to see how everybody’s favorite monitor lizard does in other matchups, check out this epic fight between the Komodo and the Lion. And, after its brawl with the King of Kitties, see how it does against another venomous reptile, the King Cobra. Finally, if you’d like to play through this battle or any other hypothetical fight from the safety of your browser, check out Fantasy Brawls the Online game.
The Komodo is a playable character of the Earth element. It has decent attack and speed and the ability to inflict Poison on opponents. Poison is a DoT (damage overtime) status move that costs 0 stamina and increases damage as the battle progresses. Try him out in the battle arena today.
Komodo Dragons venomous, meaning they must inject their venom into prey via their bites. Poisonous creatures, like Dart Frogs, must be eaten or touched to get their poisoin into their victims (or attackers in the frog's case).
Yes, just not instantly. Komodo venom regularly kills much bigger creatures than us, like Water Buffalo. The venom causes is an anticoagulant, meaning it hinders your ability to stop bleeding. In addition, the nasty toxin lowers your blood pressure and can induce shock. If left untreated, just a single bite can kill you.
No, not a fully grown, or even a small child. Komodo Dragon's have big mouths but not big enough fit an entire person in.
No, even Zoos have a hard time keeping them. They aren't like other monitor lizards that can somewhat be handled safely. Getting to close to a dragon, just like in Game of Thrones, will result in pain. If you want to tame a dragon, its best to sign up for a free account on Fantasy Brawls - The Online Game.
Posted by: Matt Irving on 12/28/2025