Throughout the entire history of Robot Wars, very few robots left a bigger and more important legacy than Behemoth. As a robot which spanned almost the entire run of the show, from Series 2 all the way back in 1998 right up to Series 10 in 2017, Behemoth was present the whole way through. Naturally, through being such a recurring face, Behemoth managed to collect more combat fights than any other Robot Wars competitor, and a number of them were staggeringly good... with a few naff ones along the way too, of course.

With fifty whole battles to go over, I see no better option but to rank them all one-by-one: welcome to the Top 50 Behemoth Fights! There's only one criteria behind the order - how much I enjoy the fight, from purely my own experiences. While I definitely could have attempted an objective ranking in the vein of NJGW's Ultimate Countdown, there are a couple of Behemoth fights out there that I feel strongly about, which otherwise fall under the radar. Rather than putting these fights higher or lower than I would want to, I'm just going to rank them with my personal enjoyment as the only criteria, especially as a relative neutral party who had never particularly cheered for or against Behemoth in most of its campaigns. I have my entire Top 50 in front of me, and there's some fights that I can't believe didn't make the top ten!

I did consider throwing in the three Anty B fights... but then it wouldn't be a Top 50, would it? The non-battle events such as the Gauntlet, Trial and Sumo Basho are also covered in their own list. So with that out of the way, let's get started!

The Unrateables

Before we get to the main entries, Behemoth had five fights which took place in the Robot Wars arena, but never aired on television. One of those is fully accessible online, so I'm comfortable including that on the main list, but the rest naturally cannot be accurately ranked. As a small prequel list, I'll attempt to rank those through pure guesswork alone!

5. Southern Annihilator, Round 3 (Series 4)

Oh, and let's chuck this one in too, just so we have a clear bottom of the list, definitively the worst Behemoth fight of all time, the one that didn't even begin! If I were granted the power of time travel then bringing Behemoth a spare gear for this fight would be on my agenda, right after I deliver Vulture a new drive motor...





4. Vs TR2 (Series 9)

Not the Battle of the Stars fight, but the whiteboard match which was filmed immediately afterwards, under the controls of the actual team members. Perhaps I should commission Jimlaad43 to write this section, considering he saw the fight in person! Indeed it was his description which allows me to know what happened in this fight, and it just sounds terrible. In it, TR2's flipper didn't work, resigning it to the wedgebot we saw against Supernova and Or Te, except this time it's against a flipper. Unsurprisingly, Behemoth ends it in seconds, but knowing that this was a whiteboard fight designed to keep the crowd happy while Team Eruption desperately try to repair their robot before the Series 9 title fight, Behemoth flips TR2 back onto its wheels every time after they had already secured the knockout. One of the most frustrating things about whiteboard fights is that they tend not to have a winner, and Behemoth probably won this several times over... until TR2 pushes Behemoth into the pit!! TR2 gets another win notched against its name all because Behemoth tried to provide some more entertainment, and given that 99% of Robot Wars fans never saw this fight, I would honestly prefer a Behemoth OHKO here just for the statistics.





3. Vs Cerberus (Series 3)

Nobody knows why this fight took place. Nobody know what happened in this fight. Nobody knows who won this fight... although I think I can guess! Even the Behemoth team themselves can't recollect this fight whatsoever despite seeing the picture and acknowledging that it must have happened, surely the only possibility is that it was over within one or two flips.





2. Vs Gabriel (Series 8)

This was the only one of the four whiteboard fights in this section to actually get some screentime on television, as a landmark shot in the Series 8 opening. Based on this single clip, and the fact that Gabriel won this by Judges' decision, you'd think this could've been a corker of a fight! I haven't seen the battle, so I can't say for sure, but I would guess it probably wasn't. Gabriel is known to have lost drive on one side very early into this match, and yet despite being immobile, it still did enough to win the battle via decision. The decision of... the audience. I'm glad we have an official winner for this one, but I'm not too sure I can trust the audience here, Behemoth may have been cheated out of a whiteboard win AGAIN...





1. Vs Eruption (Series 8)

Seemingly the only good option! This is not the Eruption whiteboard fight I dream of seeing, as I would absolutely love to see it throw Shockwave out of the arena, while I'm slightly less enthralled about the first of four Eruption vs Behemoth fights in Robot Wars, but this still probably would've been quite decent! I can imagine it being much like the Series 10 encounter, except with the known knockout against the arena wall that Eruption righted Behemoth from... probably a good decision to help it qualify for Series 9! This fight sounds like Behemoth's weakest showing out of the unrateables, but the best fight overall.





The Non-Fights

Someone, anyone, remove the block!

...someone removed the block!

Behemoth's attack easily exceeds the goal.

I described Sir Killalot's pitting in the Trial as memorable and yet we don't have a picture!

Our scoop is precision-milled! 1/5 Add photo

5. Gauntlet (Heat) - Strangely the Gauntlet run where Behemoth performs better is actually the one which was less enjoyable! Behemoth completes the Gauntlet here, but that was such a common occurrence in Series 2 that I don't remember this. I just want to pick up that breezeblock and remove it from Behemoth...

- Strangely the Gauntlet run where Behemoth performs better is actually the one which was less enjoyable! Behemoth completes the Gauntlet here, but that was such a common occurrence in Series 2 that I don't remember this. I just want to pick up that breezeblock and remove it from Behemoth... 4. Gauntlet (Semi-Final) - This was a much weaker Gauntlet performance, but Shunt overturning Behemoth added some merit, it really highlighted the size difference.

- This was a much weaker Gauntlet performance, but Shunt overturning Behemoth added some merit, it really highlighted the size difference. 3. Trial (Football) - Behemoth's goal in the football trial was probably the most limp, the flimsy hooks it used to control the ball could clearly be bent by hand, and every time I see Milly-Ann Bug perfectly grip the ball, I forget it gets eliminated here. However, Razer's earlier efforts boost this above the Gauntlet runs, as it really was remarkable how ahead of the pack Razer truly was for its time.

- Behemoth's goal in the football trial was probably the most limp, the flimsy hooks it used to control the ball could clearly be bent by hand, and every time I see Milly-Ann Bug perfectly grip the ball, I forget it gets eliminated here. However, Razer's earlier efforts boost this above the Gauntlet runs, as it really was remarkable how ahead of the pack Razer truly was for its time. 2. Trial (Pinball) - Behemoth actually got the second-lowest score in this Trial, but it certainly didn't look it, they were doing perfectly well until they get pitted by Sir Killalot. And yet, that pitting from Sir Killalot is the only thing I've listed in this section that I actually remembered before rewatching the segments for this list, so it jumps to second place!

- Behemoth actually got the second-lowest score in this Trial, but it certainly didn't look it, they were doing perfectly well until they get pitted by Sir Killalot. And yet, that pitting from Sir Killalot is the only thing I've listed in this section that I actually remembered before rewatching the segments for this list, so it jumps to second place! 1. Sumo Basho - This really shouldn't be Number 1, it's sixty seconds of two robots doing diddly-squat. Sadly, that was the aim of the game in Sumo Basho, and a successful run in Sumo made for a refreshing change compared to the failed attempts, and both Behemoth and X-Terminator 2 felt like worthier winners of the event than Panic Attack.

The Top 50

50. Vs Terrorhurtz (Series 8)

Immediately you can see why this was written as a personal ranking, and not an attempt at objectivity. On an objective scale, this fight finishes at least seven places higher, because this one genuinely does start well. Terrorhurtz, with no axe, puts on an excellent display of controlling a trigger-happy Behemoth around the arena, avoiding imminent doom. Behemoth does eventually complete the single flip needed to win the fight, and then Dead Metal slices through Terrorhurtz's baseplate to damage its CO 2 valve, which should also gain it some extra points.

However, when I look at this fight, I ignore any potential redeeming factors, because I cannot escape my unshakeable disappointment I experienced when I saw this fight. Going into the episode airing on television, various spoilers floating around the internet had already made me aware of moments in this episode such as Razer falling in the first round, Nuts scraping through to the second round, and Carbide demolishing its way to victory. All I didn't know is who would join Carbide in the Heat Final, but I honestly didn't mind too much, because Behemoth vs Terrorhurtz sounded like a super-ding-dong to determine that position. I couldn't predict a winner of this one beforehand, it sounded extremely close, and promised to be a great fight no matter what... until it happened.

Terrorhurtz dominates the majority of the fight before Behemoth wins in a single flip, and then Dead Metal cuts into Terrorhurtz's gas bottle enough to render it unusable, but not far enough to make it explode - the worst level of damage imaginable! Disappointment all around, this result also means that Behemoth broke its unlucky streak and made a Heat Final, having fallen in the second round of Series 5, 6, 7 and 9. Why was this series the outlier when Terrorhurtz put on a much better performance throughout the heat? Nevertheless, Behemoth reaches the Heat Final...





49. Vs Carbide (Series 8, Heat Final)

...to take part in its second-worst fight of the whole show, against Carbide. This one stunk. While Behemoth vs Terrorhurtz was something that excited me prior to the episode airing, I was excited for this one as a result of the episode's build-up. It's true that I would've preferred Terrorhurtz in this position, but the previous encounter between Behemoth and Carbide was fantastic, and with the Round Robin format completely new to all of us (thus no flaws exposed yet), I never could have anticipated how this fight could possibly be bad.

In reality, we soon came to realise that robots entering more fights means that their working condition was gradually going to decrease (who would've thought!), and Behemoth was the first to truly feel the force of that, with Nuts entering its fight against Terrorhurtz relatively intact. Throughout this entire fight, Behemoth did not work. The blows from Carbide were few and far between, with the bar spinner eventually ceasing altogether, Behemoth had no semblance of control for any moment of this bout after the first hit, and eventually they back into the pit in a camera angle which completely mirrors Carbide's actually-good pitting KO from their previous bout. It says a lot when Carbide's Heat Finals against Apollo and Eruption weren't its worst!





48. Vs Elvis (Series 2)

This fight supposedly goes to a Judges' decision somehow, as we do see the countdown clock reach 0, and Elvis is never fully demonstrated to have broken down, but you wouldn't think it from the way the show handled it, the post-interview essentially called it a knockout and took Behemoth's win as something that went without saying. Of course, Behemoth was the obvious winner, but at the same time, it hardly did much to earn it. Let's break down exactly why this fight is a classic case of what went wrong with Series 2.

Time where Behemoth was in frame : 37 seconds

: 37 seconds Time where Elvis is being attacked by the House Robots: 58 seconds

The post-match interview even sees Anthony Pritchard describing his broken pneumatic system to justify why we couldn't see his weapon working... mate, we couldn't see your robot at all!





47. Vs Kat3, Riptilion (Extreme 2, Iron Maidens)

Just two entries ago, I had to put the Carbide vs Behemoth Heat Final very low down, because Behemoth could make no controlled movements for the entire fight. Here, all three of the competing robots were completely uncontrolled! Behemoth was the best-driven robot of the three, and by the second round, Claire Gray seemed to have worked the machine out completely, but this was a slower start, filled with slow plays and driving errors that even Chopper would shake its head at. Kat3 and Riptilion drag the fight down even lower. It feels as though Kat3 was stuck on its side for such a long time, and Riptilion breaks down from so very little, having done nothing in the fight leading up to its KO. Behemoth's performance was solid, but I don't get why they were in this competition AND the University Challenge to begin with!

I doubt this fight truly is in Behemoth's bottom three of all time, but as someone who started watching Robot Wars from the New Blood Final onward, the first episodes I ever managed to record on VHS were the Challenge Belt and the Iron Maidens, before Heat A of Series 7 directly followed it on Five the week after. This meant that I watched the Iron Maidens over and over again, and what is probably an inoffensively bad fight gradually becomes one of the worst ever in a young child's brain, saved only by Kat3 spiking Riptilion's armour after it finally got put back on its wheels, and Mr. Psycho's big hammer blow.

It's also a crime that we never got to see Claire Gray vs Clare Greenaway in this tournament.





46. Vs Inquisitor (Series 2)

The plus side: as Series 2 fights go, this one's actually not that bad! The downside: it's a Series 2 fight. There's a case for ranking this fight above some of the following matches, as it's relatively even in the opening stages, with both robots landing non-fatal blows, including some nice little lifts from Behemoth, and a direct spike from Inquisitor. My favourite moment would have to be Sir Killalot pulling Inquisitor's flails off the back of the robot with a delicate flick of his wrist - what were those flails held on with? Even The Tragic Roundabout's flails were more secure than that!

Behemoth lifts Inquisitor up and pushes it into the PPZ fair and square, but that's of course where the fight ends, the House Robots finish the job with Behemoth's involvement finished. An above-average Series 2 fight, but that still doesn't mean a great deal in the long run. Rewatching the episode for the purposes of this list, I had no idea that Inquisitor's team captain was an amateur bodybuilder, but I found it rather funny how often Jonathan Pearce referred to it during Inquisitor's campaign!





45. Vs Judge Shred 2 (Series 4)

We've escaped the bottom five of the list, and now it's time for me to bring in the fights which I imagine most people would fit within that bottom five. Of course I had to be 'innovative' and shove Terrorhurtz, Carbide, Kat3 and Riptilion down there instead, but now we're getting to "those" Behemoth fights. In the early stages of its career, Behemoth was renown for ending fights in a single flip, inspiring Firestorm III to one day repeat the same tricks on the dangerous and always-threatening Diotoir and Sir Chromalot. I couldn't put these fights off any longer, and we're starting with the fight which is sure to be a contender for the most forgettable bout in all of Series 4 - it's Behemoth vs Judge Shred 2.

Once again my lack of conventions in the decision-making process is shining through, because out of all the one-flip jobs Behemoth put on in Robot Wars, this fight actually had by far the most content. Judge Shred 2 resists Behemoth for a good while, and when it does go over, Behemoth can really be forgiven for taking the win there and then, as there was always the threat that Judge Shred 2 could suddenly flip Behemoth over. Although I don't blame them, it also doesn't stop this from being the most forgettable fight of the whole series.

I'll delve into the slight redeeming factors of the other one-flip fights across the next few sections, but this is simply the fight that doesn't really have any. The holes and slices that the House Robots put into Judge Shred 2 are pretty nice to look at, but it's all dealt out so slowly, and that's after there was already so much screentime dedicated to the flipped robot failing to self-right. Where does that sound familiar...





44. Vs Techno-Lease (Series 3, The First World Championship)

The fact that this fight manage to outplace six others is frankly amazing, because out of all the Behemoth one-flip jobs, this one is by far the simplest. I can describe the entire fight in four words. "Behemoth flips Techno-Lease over". Does Techno-Lease count as one word? Regardless, that's genuinely it. This twenty-second fight brings very little to the table, and I've not exactly got it high on this list at all, but I almost feel as though I have to justify how high it is!

Well seeing as it took you longer to read the first paragraph than it would to watch the fight, I may as well. I give this a little bit of credit for two reasons. Behemoth's flip is quite stylish, that's one. The other is the fact it's in The First World Championship, and I don't say that to mean that I feel patriotic about England beating The Netherlands, but rather, the episode justifies the short length of the fight. Let me remind you that The First World Championship has a total of fifteen fights, and four of them contain Behemoth! It's a long ride, so opening it up with an extremely prompt fight wasn't such a bad thing. It also helps that Techno-Lease's pristine shell was preserved for its fight with Razer!





43. Vs Shark Attack (Series 3)

For now, I'll close out the one-flip trilogy with Behemoth Evo II's first victory, against Shark Attack. The flip itself takes a little while to complete, which honestly doesn't help the fight in any way, and the flip that Behemoth carries out was nicer on Techno-Lease than it was on Shark Attack. However, what carries this fight above the Techno-Lease and Judge Shred 2 fights is the involvement of the House Robots. Now, example reader, I hear your cries. "Toast, didn't you put Judge Shred 2 at the bottom of the one-flip category because of the House Robots?" Well thanks for raising that concern, example reader, I was worried nobody would!

It's quite simple really - Shunt's axe blow through the base plate of Shark Attack is a prominent part of Shunt's montage in the Sir Killalot DVD that I watched countless times as a young child, and even now, it feels like an iconic shot to me. It also helps that Behemoth has a little pop at Sgt. Bash while the fight was ending, but it was so late that Sgt. Bash just blatantly ignored it. If anything, the main thing dragging this fight down is Philippa Forrester's insistence on describing Behemoth's weapon as a "big chopper" after the fight. I get it, you love your innuendos, but in what way can a lifting scoop be described as a "chopper"?





42. Vs Infernal Contraption, C.V. (Extreme 2, University Challenge)

You know, from a personal perspective, I wish I could push this up higher. I'm somewhat associated with my occasional blasts of support for Infernal Contraption, and this is its televised win! Extreme 2 is also one of my favourite series, so to see two out of its three Behemoth fights already gone, I wish there was something I could do. Sadly, I can't dwell, because in terms of Behemoth's performance in the fight, this was one of its absolute worst showings. It does start the fight well with dominance over C.V., including a KO which they pass up to have more fun, but Behemoth's immobilisation... what can you say?

At this point in time, Behemoth was starting to become known for its bad luck, with the Iron Maidens airing just one week beforehand, but all of the Behemoth "bad luck" moments (which I'll discuss in depth when each fight appears) were usually moments so atypical that they could only happen to Behemoth and practically nobody else. This defeat was definitely unlucky, but not in a "Behemoth bad luck" way, it was just a bog-standard breakdown with no real justification as to why it would happen. One moment Behemoth is driving, the next it isn't. I do think there's a lot of comedy to be found in Behemoth bottling a fight against Infernal Contraption and C.V., irony not missed by Philippa Forrester in her interviews, but there's really nothing you can praise about the fight itself. Well, OK, I do like Infernal Contraption's huge vertical spinner blow to the side of C.V., but...





41. Vs Diotoir (Series 3, The First World Championship)

Well we had a brief reprise from Series 3 fights, but it didn't last! I don't think this is the Series 3 fight from Behemoth that people expected to see next, and it does feel a little odd chucking Behemoth vs Diotoir this low when it's actually the personal favourite fight of the Behemoth team (although discussion of Series 10 may still have been under NDA at the time), and it shows in the fight. We were used to seeing this version of Behemoth end fights as quickly as possible, but the team took a complete 180 for the semi-final of the World Championship and spent the full five minutes playing with their food, toppling Diotoir repeatedly. The fact that there is more than one attack puts this fight ahead of the Shark Attacks and Judge Shreds of this world, but ultimately didn't bolster its rating all that much.

I suppose that's down to the fight not really having any particularly impressive flips, we all knew that Behemoth could end this fight at any time it wanted, and so the remainder of the fight was largely padding. Good padding to have at the late stage of the tournament, but not stellar entertainment. I will also admit that seeing Diotoir so deprived of fur is a little upsetting, and the fight would probably be more enjoyable if Behemoth was tossing around a full condition Diotoir which burns away its fur across the fight. I respect Team Make Robotics for having more fun with this one, but at the end of the day, the key to a higher ranking on the list was either a better opponent, or a better Behemoth.





40. Vs Carbide, Bonk, The General (Series 8)

The list escapes its bottom ten, and we make it to the BBC Official Charts end of the ranking, at No. 40, where I've chosen to rank Behemoth's debut fight in the reboot. I'm very curious to hear in the comments whether this surprises people, as this fight tends to get a lot of mentions in passing, albeit more for the surprise factor of The General's return, and the subsequent "don't bring wheels into the arena" meme. Honestly, I'm surprised that quote took off like it did, for my initial reaction was "but robots need wheels to move!", and Jonathan really needed to throw the word 'exposed' in there, ignoring the fact The General runs on tyres anyway!

As the second fight of the reboot altogether, and somewhat of a community meme, this fight is definitely remembered - but is it good? Given that this is Carbide's second appearance on the list already, not really. I'll get the personal part out of the way first - as an avid Mute fan, I was never keen on Bonk, and found it to be a much less inspired design. "Conventional" is a good way to describe Bonk, and sadly "unreliable" is another. Behemoth's main quota in this fight was that it overturned Bonk, avenging its loss to Mute in Series 7, but in truth, Carbide had already immobilised it with the same blow that ripped a wheel from The General. Duller design or not, I was still cheering for Bonk to leave an impression, and it really didn't.

I have no such complaints with The General's performance, it performed respectably, throwing some sparks and ruining Behemoth's official photo for Series 8 (which they even used in the Robot Wars 2018 calendar despite the plethora of other options!), and lost in an entertaining way. However, the main performances I need to comment on are that of the winners, Behemoth and Carbide. This was the debut battle of future champion Carbide, the modern-day Hypno-Disc, but the difference between the debut battles of Carbide and Hypno-Disc is completely night and day. Hypno-Disc absolutely destroyed Robogeddon, and after Carbide had been hyped up so much on social media before the episode started, I really expected to see a highly damaging performance from Carbide. What we got was the bar stopping on contact after most hits, including a complete failure to damage the armour of Bonk, and in the end both Behemoth and Carbide win without ever getting out of second gear. This melee was decent, certainly, but it had potential for a lot more.

Oh, and to answer a burning question I've been asked before - knowing that Mute would have to face Carbide in the first round and potentially get destroyed, would I trade Bonk's place in Series 8 and swap it with Mute? Yes, yes I would.





39. Vs PP3D (Series 9)

You know something, I really can't put my finger on why this fight ended up so low on the list. In theory, it's got a bit of everything; huge hits from a spinner, a somewhat come-from-behind victory, and a robot finding its demise in a blaze of sparks, with the action rarely letting up. This has the makings of a really high quality fight, so what causes it to fall short?

I suppose the main reason would be the fact that PP3D broke down from recoil damage. This was certainly its flashiest breakdown, falling in a way unlike any other robot, but the fact that PP3D has had so many breakdowns really works against it. It lost the fight to Cherub just minutes beforehand on recoil damage, and that follows on from mobility losses against Eruption (Series 8), Storm2, and even a link pop-out against Apollo in a fight it had already lost! What makes this more strange is that when PP3D is counted out, it doesn't really seem to be dead yet. They were clearly having issues, but were they immobile enough to be counted out? I would say no, they were still showing limited signs of life.

The other factor that would work against this otherwise good fight, on personal grounds now, was how according-to-plan the fight seemed to go. Out of the 31(!) reboot fights that I had the pleasure of watching whilst they were being filmed, Behemoth was surprisingly only in one of those, and it was this fight. Throughout my times watching these fights live, I lost all confidence in myself as a fantasy battle voter, as my predictions would often turn out to be way off the mark. To name a few, Eruption's melee in Series 10, Track-tion vs Apex, Androne 4000 vs Tauron and even Ironside3 vs Wyrm (yeah that one was stupid) went against my live predictions. Behemoth vs PP3D, spark explosion aside, went exactly how I predicted - some big spinner hits, before the bulky Behemoth triggers a PP3D breakdown. The fact that I could almost picture the entire fight before it even happened is ultimately what relegates the fight to 39th place.





38. Vs Chompalot (Extreme 2, Iron Maidens)

It is with a heavy heart that I must confirm, just thirteen entries into this fifty-part blog, all of Behemoth's fights from Extreme 2 have now been fully represented. As a big fan of Extreme 2, this is a pity, and Anty B would no doubt push one Team Make Robotics fight from this series into the upper echelons if such a battle were eligible, but here in 38th place, Behemoth's Iron Maidens battle with Chompalot makes an appearance. And if anything... it's too high on this list.

I'm going to get the bias out of the way immediately and say that the only reason this fight escaped the bottom ten is the fact it's from Extreme 2, and because a robot that I really like went on to win the battle. Of course I'm not boosting it simply because it's from Extreme 2, but because of the factor I mentioned in the Kat3 and Riptilion fight; the Iron Maidens episode was the second I ever recorded on VHS, meaning I would rewatch it again and again, with the episode being one of the first that I ever watched in general. As I was still new to the show on a first viewing, I was completely desensitised to the controversy, and so I was able to view this as a respectable and fun Chompalot win, back then.

Of course, I can ignore the controversy no longer, and have to explain why this fight ended up here in the lower end of the countdown. There's really no other way to put it - Behemoth was robbed. I still don't necessarily mind, as I wouldn't ever trade Chompalot's title for yet another Pussycat trophy, or Team Make Robotics' second trophy within Extreme 2 alone, but when trying to look objectively at the morals of this fight, there really isn't an excuse for how the match played out.

Within the opening seconds of the fight, Behemoth flips Chompalot over, and the dragon can't self-right, so the newly formed ladies' team behind Behemoth is happy to channel the Series 3 version of their machine and take the OHKO victory. Of course, this would've made the fight even worse than what we actually got, so Shunt completely bends the rules and flips Chompalot back over. It gave us a more interesting fight, certainly, but from a rules perspective, there's really no justification for why this happened. It clearly wasn't Shunt trying to "attack" or damage Chompalot, it was 100% a helping hand.

Later into the fight, you'd be forgiven for claiming "preferential treatment", for after Shunt already revived a defeated Chompalot, the House Robot then secures the dragon's victory, axing through the top of Behemoth and taking out its removable link. There's still more upsides to this, for Shunt's damage here was the most he'd ever caused since Series 4, and Chompalot would subsequently carry out a lovely pitting, but you're left with a fight where Behemoth earned a KO, Shunt revives Chompalot, and then Shunt immobilises Behemoth. Chalk it up to Behemoth Bad Luck, eh?





37. Vs The Spider (Extreme, Wild Card Warriors)

Out of every way to secure a victory in Robot Wars, there's absolutely no contest in my mind which method appeals to me the most - I will always appreciate a robot being thrown out of the arena. Shout-outs to my second-favourite method of winning, the Judges' decision! Behemoth vs The Spider features a very notable out of the arena flip, which allowed Behemoth to join Chaos 2 and Gemini as the third robot to gain the achievement in televised battles. This was especially notable, as Behemoth was the first to not use a traditional flipper in the process, instead using a lifting weapon. It's a nice thing to see, and an attack I doubt many viewers were expecting at the time.

Sadly, that's all you can say about Behemoth vs The Spider. It was a good KO, but there is absolutely nothing to comment on otherwise. The fight is short, and the veteran Behemoth is never challenged by the Wild Card Warrior. It also didn't help that in four episodes of Extreme, this was already Behemoth's fourth fight. They were still the Challenge Belt holders at the time, so it's puzzling why Behemoth would be broadcast in a different exhibition battle format before they had lost their belt. If I were The Spider, I'd rather earn a Challenge Belt for beating Behemoth over a "Wild Card Warriors victory". I'm not sure whether Behemoth still held its belt at the time of filming, but this could have aired much further into the series than it did.

Funny thing about this fight, there's no doubt a worldline where The Spider's predecessor Robocow was able to win its Series 3 fight against General Carnage. Had that happened, the teams behind Behemoth and The Spider would have fought two years earlier. However, in this worldline, we never got to see...





36. Vs General Carnage (Series 3)

...the actual fight between Behemoth and General Carnage! Out of the Shark Attack, Techno-Lease, Judge Shred 2 and Terrorhurtz fights, only one of the Behemoth one-flip KO fights remained, and this one has nearly managed to escape the bottom fifteen! So what makes Behemoth vs General Carnage special? If you'd asked me that prior to starting this list, I would've said 'nothing', as this is a fight I could barely remember until I gave it a re-watch in my efforts to separate the single-flip fights.

Much to my surprise, having gone into the battle expecting a very simple affair, what we actually got was a fairly entertaining battle! The actual fight between Behemoth vs General Carnage itself was fairly lacklustre, for as I've already described, it was just a single flip. It's quite nice to see Behemoth uses its rear axes on its beaten foe, as this was something I'd have to rely upon when I played as Behemoth in the Robot Wars video games after losing the lifting scoop (which happened very frequently), and this is the only battle where we really see them come into effect. What ensues afterwards, however, really adds value to the fight.

Once the House Robots close in, Behemoth wastes no time in going straight for Dead Metal, which promptly leads to Behemoth having a fight with the House Robots! Dead Metal and Sir Killalot have a scrap with Behemoth, while General Carnage is left to Sgt. Bash and Shunt. Here, I would say Shunt lands one of the most satisfying House Robot attacks in the whole series, as it lands an absolutely perfect shot in the very centre of General Carnage's lid, and just punches straight through it like there was nothing there.

No doubt I'm overrating a single aspect of a House Robot attacking sequence here, but it's far from over, as Sgt. Bash attempts to put General Carnage in the pit... and drives onto the lip himself! He's stuck there for ages, and eventually General Carnage is righted by the House Robots, causing the East Yorkshire-based team to go straight on the initiative, as they try to push Sgt. Bash into the pit completely. They don't succeed, but Sir Killalot ends up finishing the job after Cease in a bit of friendly fire that the editors tried their best to mask.

In the space of writing this blog, this fight went from a completely forgotten battle to a sudden underrated favourite, but at the end of the day, I can't put it any higher on the list without more content from the actual encounter between Behemoth and General Carnage themselves.





35. Vs Nuts (Series 8)

I have to feel bad for Series 8, because despite this series being Behemoth's third-most successful, this is the fourth fight out of five to appear on the list, and we've only just exited the bottom fifteen out of fifty! Behemoth's fight with Nuts was its second-best of the series, and by all accounts it's still a good fight - I would say we've reached the third tier of the list at this stage, with Elvis closing out the bottom tier, and General Carnage closing the next.

There's plenty of good things to say about this fight - the manic spinning of Nuts is charming to watch, and I'd probably enjoy it even more now after competing with my own sit-and-spin robot, although at the time it hardly impressed as a threatening attack. Behemoth getting thrown over by Matilda was a pivotal moment, causing more visible damage than any other House Robot managed to cause in the series, and we can't forget Behemoth's giant launches on the Nuts minibots. Thank heavens they stayed in the arena though, I don't want to think about updating Thrown Out of the Arena for a single minibot flip!

The reason this fight doesn't climb any higher is the fact it ends in basically the same position as it started. Behemoth's attacks clearly earned it the win, but none of its attacks on the heavyweight Nuts machine were particularly impressive, and Nuts certainly left the arena in the same condition it entered with. You could be forgiven for wishing we were seeing the Behemoth vs Razer grudge conclusion, because this all went exactly according to plan - much unlike the next fight between Behemoth and Nuts...





34. Vs Magnetar (Series 10)

Series 10 is the next to get its first bit of representation on the list, and here we have a fight from the greatest episode in the show's history! The fact that the Series 10 Grand Final is so amazing does favours for this fight, as it adds a real context boost to make the outcome more exciting due to the high stakes. At the same time, the claim that every single battle in the Grand Final was amazing may be an exaggeration, with this fight being a contender for the weakest of the bunch. Although my choice would be Carbide vs Nuts 2.

Magnetar entered the Grand Final as one of the red-hot favourites behind Carbide, particularly with Eruption's place not guaranteed prior to the episode, and expectations of the Team Ranglebots machine were high. They dominate Behemoth in the early stages, and secure what would in many cases be enough to declare a knockout victory for the drum spinner, as Behemoth loses drive on one side. What follows is a tense affair, where Ellis Ware waits for his victory to be declared, but the Judges don't bite, and Magnetar feels forced to try and finish the deal... even though they don't have a working weapon, no clear way of securing the knockout, and a clear vulnerability in their srimech being locked open!

You can hardly blame Ellis Ware for his driving, roboteering really can be a blur in the middle of a fight and sometimes you have to trust your instincts. On this occasion, Ellis' instincts let him down, and a basically dead Behemoth secures the victory with only its second full flip of the match. Full credit to Ellis for keeping his reaction clean for the cameras, I'm sure the majority of the drivers in this competition would start hammering expletives! Nobody is really to blame here, Behemoth is at fault for losing mobility and then Magnetar is at fault for driving straight onto the flipper. Ultimately I think that not counting Behemoth out was the correct decision, the win was deserved, and I'm glad we didn't get another Hypno-Disc vs Dominator II. I can't put this fight any higher because it's the high stakes of a Grand Final second-chance battle which elevate what would otherwise be a fairly basic match to a higher status.





33. Vs TR2 (Battle of the Stars)

What does it tell you when TR2's third-best battle out of nine is Behemoth's thirty-third out of fifty? What does it also tell you when this was by far the best battle in its episode out of nine? This whiteboard fight from Series 9 was a really nice surprise to have during the otherwise truly drab Battle of the Stars Episode 1, particularly as I already knew at this stage that TR2 would not be competing in Series 9. As time has gone on, more and more people seem to realise that's not such a bad thing, with TR2 really being barren for entertaining performances in Robot Wars, but at the time it was unheard of to deny the reigning third place! I'd still give them a place in Series 9, but only if they're in the same heat as Apollo and Carbide.

What separates this battle from the whiteboard match Behemoth and TR2 would wage immediately afterwards (apart from the fact this one was televised) is the driving of the machines. With Dara Ó Briain driving TR2 and Angela Scanlon driving Behemoth, we had a completely unique battle unlike any other in Robot Wars. Dara Ó Briain actually drove TR2 quite respectably, and I don't know whether that does more to credit Dara Ó Briain as a driver or to discredit Alex Brown as the "best driver" in Robot Wars at the time, but it meant the pace was high enough to call this a fight. Unfortunately for Behemoth, Angela Scanlon's driving was horrendous, she'd honestly give Chopper and Bash Gordon a good chance of qualifying against her. This did make for some good banter though, and at least Behemoth carried out a flip in the end, albeit one given to her on a silver platter.

If the previous entry of Behemoth vs Magnetar was boosted by context, this one is inherently hindered, for it meets the definition of 'throwaway encounter' so perfectly that the fight was never even intended to be broadcast! This scraped onto the TV show purely to fill time in a wasteland of an episode, and due to its position as a whiteboard fight, we never got an official winner, despite the outcome being extremely clear. And really... it is hard to get behind a dominant TR2 performance when their flips barely hoist a robot off ground level. This fight had their biggest flip to date, and it was hardly Eruption or Apollo calibre!

I do love that if you consider Battle of the Stars to be its own series, Behemoth competed in a total of twelve different Robot Wars seasons...





32. Vs Disc-O-Inferno, Tridentate, Derek 2 (Series 6)

This fight honestly could have ended up anywhere on the list. The first of Behemoth's two fights in Series 6 has some major pros, and some major cons, and I do struggle to determine which one outweighs the other. I'll start with the positives: Disc-O-Inferno causes significant damage to all three of its opponents, for one of the most complete spinner fights in the original run of Robot Wars. Tridentate is absolutely annihilated, Behemoth takes unprecedented damage when its scoop is ripped off - an achievement Hypno-Disc could not match - and all three robots end up in the pit. It's really good fun to watch, especially in an episode which directly followed a fairly limp Hypno-Disc heat in terms of damage.

The con, however, is a hard one to overlook. Behemoth qualified out of this melee alongside Disc-O-Inferno, but had absolutely no business doing so. In the grand scheme of things, this was probably for the best, as it went on to take part in an absolute classic fight against Bigger Brother one round later, whilst Tridentate's destruction is an image I always want to have in my mind. Despite that, Tridentate was honestly cheated, for Behemoth had lost mobility to one side very early on in the match. This isn't like Behemoth vs Magnetar where the flipper was allowing the robot to exit its circumference, and the rules on immobility were more consistent and clear; this comes in the same series where Ming III pushed Spam into the pit but the Judges retroactively eliminated The Hassocks Hog because it was dead on one side. Why then, do Behemoth and Tridentate not get the same treatment? Is it because Behemoth is a fan favourite veteran? The possibility is hard to ignore.





31. Vs The Steel Avenger (Extreme, Challenge Belt)

Now you know we're thoroughly in the middle of the list when we're presented a fight like Behemoth vs The Steel Avenger. In terms of a fight, this is actually a pretty decent encounter - what I remembered after the first few watches was a Behemoth romp that wasn't close, but in actuality, The Steel Avenger lands quite a lot of blows and keeps the contest interesting. Heck, we see more axe blows in this loss from The Steel Avenger than we do in its wins against Sir Chromalot!

The attacks from both machines are good, especially the near-OotA in a time where only four OotA's had taken place on Robot Wars, but this fight is unfortunately let down by context. This was the "main event" in the first episode of a brand-new series, so expectations were high for this to be a really good encounter. Yet, at the same time, the show consistently tried to play it down during the pre-match "hype"? It was necessary to make the producers' choice of Behemoth a worthy recipient of the Challenge Belt, particularly as it was likely inspired by All-Stars performances that hadn't been broadcast yet, so they fed it a fairly easy opening match.

Indeed, The Steel Avenger is a fairly good choice for a beatable but still respectable opponent, but yikes, the show tried its best to make it sound terrible! The Steel Avenger was introduced as losing in the first round of both Series 3 and 4, and there's no way this was just an accidental error. This had to be a purposeful attempt to make Behemoth seem like the better robot, knowing that in actuality Behemoth and The Steel Avenger performed equally well in their most recent series. I get it, 80% of casual viewers will go along with it and believe that The Steel Avenger was a poor performer in the main competition, but believe it or not, some viewers actually remember previous episodes of the show! This of course doesn't affect my rating of the fight itself, but it's not something I appreciate.





30. Vs Mortis (Series 3, The First World Championship)

Out of every fight in the Top 30, this one is most likely the shortest! Behemoth's Series 3 campaign featured a total of seven televised fights, to the point where you can probably make a ranking out of those fights alone! Coming in at third place for the Series 3 ranking is Behemoth vs. Mortis, the England vs England quarter-final matchup from The First World Championship.

Honestly, this fight is a really understated fight, which has fallen by the wayside due to the power of hindsight affecting the rewatch value. Nowadays, in the times where we see Behemoth finish third place in an entire series, and know full well that it was a World Championship runner-up, Behemoth beating Mortis is something we take for granted. In actuality, Behemoth defeating Mortis at this early stage was somewhat of a surprise victory. All roboteers and presenters speaking on-screen were confident that Mortis would take this, as although Behemoth was more successful in the main competition of Series 3, both robots had an equal success peak and Mortis was still the more well-known robot. Certainly the Behemoth Boys were visibly worried about this opponent!

Knowing that their machine was at risk of damage, Behemoth charge straight in, and get an axe straight through their plough! The damage wasn't critical, but it left a solid first impression, and forced Behemoth to act fast. And act fast, they did, with Mortis tipped over and carried to the pit in one very swift, classy manoeuvre from Behemoth. To a young lad who had just got The First World Championship on VHS and believed everything the presenters fed to him, this was the upset of the tournament, and a fight which still deserves just a little more credit.





29. Vs Stinger (Extreme, Challenge Belt)

Two entries after Behemoth's first Challenge Belt battle!

Behemoth's second and final defence of its Challenge Belt against Stinger is a battle that I feel has been a little misremembered, particularly from my own experience. I was aware of this before determining the order of the the list, but still opted to put this fight within the Top 30 based on the way I fondly remember the highlight moment of the match, even if truthfully, the fight could only drop further down the list over time.

Let's be honest, Behemoth vs Stinger is remembered for one attack - the moment where Behemoth uses its axe to grab Stinger, and then carry it over to the pit. For a long time, I remembered this attack as the KO, and if that were the case, this would easily be one of the most stylish knockouts in Robot Wars. It is true that this beautiful carrying attack does immobilise Stinger, although the move loses a bit of magic on a re-watch when you remember that Behemoth doesn't actually drop Stinger directly into the pit, rather it drops it onto the lip, and then Stinger drives itself in after a few seconds of dawdling.

There's very little to comment on when it comes to this fight apart from the carrying manoeuvre, which isn't necessarily a bad thing - nobody expects you to remember Storm II vs The Steel Avenger for the match prior to the megaslam, for example - although Behemoth vs Stinger must still finish in the lower half of the list. Perhaps if Behemoth did manage to drop Stinger straight into the pit, this position would be a little different.





28. Vs Gabriel (Series 9, Whiteboard)

As far as this list goes, Behemoth's second encounter with Gabriel has to be the strangest fight to talk about, because it's the only one in the main 50 which didn't air on TV! Behemoth's fight with Gabriel in Series 9 is fully accessible on YouTube here, so I feel it's completely fair to judge, especially as it was the key to giving me a nice, even fifty fights. Not only is the fight available in full for a fair judgement, it's actually a rather good fight!

The awkward thing about Behemoth's fight with Gabriel is that it follows on from Behemoth's controversial loss to the same team's Cherub within the same series. Still fuming from his team's actions, Anthony Pritchard is not present for this fight, and the remaining three team members are left to compete in what I would hesitate to call a grudge match - certainly I think both teams involved would rather pretend the whole Cherub battle never happened whilst waging this encounter!

For the duration of the bout, this is a really close encounter with no clear winner at any stage. Gabriel is trialling its pointed star mace weapon which would later serve as an entanglement device in Series 10, and it's not the most useful weapon in its own right, but nevertheless Gabriel lands some overhead shots to gain points in all three categories. Behemoth's weapon usage isn't really having much of an impact, but their control in pushing Gabriel around the arena is dictating the pace of the fight. Had this gone on to a televised Judges' decision, picking a winner at this stage would be mighty difficult - I'd edge towards Gabriel, but I know others disagree.

However, there was no need to let this go to the Judges, because the fight does end in a knockout, which is simultaneously the best and worst thing about the fight. Behemoth seizes an opportunity and charges Gabriel into the pit for a sudden KO, which is all well and good, except Behemoth also drives into the pit with Gabriel at the same time. This isn't like Heavy Metal vs M.R. Speed Squared where one robot clearly drops into the pit first, because I've gone through this frame by frame, and I feel it's impossible to say that Gabriel was definitely pitted before Behemoth, it feels much more like a Firestorm III vs Hypno-Disc where the win can't be given to Behemoth outright even if it did initiate the pitting.

How do the Judges get around this? Well... they don't. As a whiteboard match, there was never any need to declare an official winner in the first place, and as far as we're aware, the battle didn't actually have a winner. If we could just call it a Behemoth victory, I may have honestly put this hidden Behemoth fight even higher up the list, but as things stand, Behemoth still lacks an official Robot Wars victory over Team Saint after three separate attempts...





27. Vs The Swarm (Series 10)

We're two fights away from the dead-centre of the list, and I can't think of a fight more dead-centre than Behemoth vs The Swarm. Arguably one of the most expendable fights in Series 10, given the way all of The Swarm's fights seem to blend together with each other, but this is still an entertaining bout nevertheless with some real highlights - albeit a fight where it always takes me a while to remember whether it ended in a KO or a Judges' decision.

It's easier to start with the highs, and the biggest highlight had to be Behemoth doing to Skye what it couldn't do to the Nuts minibots, as it gains the easiest OotA flip in all of Robot Wars - but hey, I'll take it! Skye does go absolutely flying out, and Blenda lands a lovely hit to Behemoth's titanium scoop which made for perfect trailer fodder, all while convincing the viewing audience that these little bar spinners were still threatening and had the potential to be a winning design. Too bad we were all completely and utterly wrong. Ian, mate, stop watching your one big hit on Behemoth, it won't lead to The Four Horsemen winning Season 4 of BattleBots.

The general madness of the still-new concept of The Swarm made this entertaining to follow, at the expense of making it difficult to determine when the fight had actually ended. I have to say that Behemoth's "big launch" on Pinza never fails to disappoint me, Behemoth had a full run-up to toss a 23.5kg robot and Jonathan Pearce acted like he'd just seen Wheely Big Cheese vs Axe-Awe, and yet Pinza hardly even leaves the ground. In general, the number of flips Behemoth actually completes in this fight can be counted on one hand. This is a good fight - they all have to be good at this stage of the list - but this particular battle has a few too many flaws holding it back.





26. Vs Pitbull (Series 3)

In twenty-sixth place, one fight had to be the unlucky battle which missed out on the top half of the list by only one space - so near, and yet so far! Funnily enough, that description sums up Behemoth's Series 3 Heat Final quite aptly, as Behemoth quite infamously secured a knockout on Pitbull in the early stages of this fight, before the House Robots allowed the fight to continue, and a factor other than Behemoth's actual opponent, armed with a pincer weapon, was responsible for Behemoth's immobilisation. Sounds familiar, doesn't it, Chompalot???

Indeed, there are many parallels to be drawn between Behemoth's unfortunate losses against Chompalot and Pitbull, so perhaps I have some explaining to do in order to justify this fight being twelve places higher than the Iron Maidens semi-final. I do think the House Robots' revival of the flipped crusher is much less controversial here, with Pitbull being near enough the CPZ that I can believe Dead Metal genuinely wanting to cause harm with its attack, compared to Shunt's deliberate revival of Chompalot - and of course, if this fight were just a one-flip job, it wouldn't be very good, would it?

This fight ends, not with Shunt's axe spiking through Behemoth's lid, but with an arena floor spike overturning Behemoth, seemingly out of nowhere, in what has to be the most infamous use of the controversial arena hazard. This attack made the arena floor spikes unpopular with many fans, and to this day I can still remember our confusion and concerns when we heard that these hazards would be making a return in the reboot of Robot Wars, casually forgetting that almost every robot can now self-right or run inverted.

Indeed, it is the way that the arena spike secures a completely unprovoked and untelegraphed victory which stops the fight from reaching the top half of the list, but I do still think there's plenty of content to praise in Behemoth vs Pitbull. I am under the firm belief that while Behemoth may have been able to secure a victory if it weren't overturned, Pitbull was definitely on top in this fight regardless. After a sketchy win over Technophobic where Pitbull struggled more than it should have, they were very much the underdog (no pun intended) against the returning semi-finalist Behemoth, and to see such a strong display of control was impressive for Series 3.

We also got to see the Floor Flipper in action for the very first time, and in general, back-and-forth fights were hard to come across in the Third Wars. I have to admit that I did find humour in Behemoth's persistent bad luck throughout the show's run, and this was the first "typical Behemoth moment", and at such a high stakes moment too - the sense of drama and the subsequent realisation that Pitbull earned a shock heat win is almost enough to justify the hostile KO. Almost.

And hey, Pitbull was eliminated in its very next fight through the arena spike anyway, so we might as well take the Behemoth heat loss as part of the build-up to their Series 10 campaign!





25. Vs Killertron (Series 2)

We've now reached the top half of the list, and here we have a fight that one certain reader in the comments demanded that I include within the top half - looks like you got your wish, TG, but only just!

Killertron vs Behemoth is not a battle which requires extraordinary detail in its description. This fight is remembered for one thing, and one thing alone, and that's the KO blow. This occurred all the way back in Series 2 back when fights were simply awful, and somehow we managed to get a KO which to this day has never been replicated. Never before, and never again, would an axe spike straight through the top of a robot, and pull it over for a win by flip. We would see axes flip robots over for a victory, take X-Terminator vs Robochicken for example, but even when reaching outside of Robot Wars, I can't think of this ever happening ever again.

...Although I do vividly remember The Tragic Roundabout being flipped over by an axe blow from Red Hot Tilly Pecker, unfortunately I was invertible and kept going...

It is a shame that Killertron does fail to keep Behemoth over, and puts it back on its wheels so quickly, but fortunately the ceasefire was even more preemptive and the KO is rendered final, even if there is some room for doubt whether Behemoth had truly been immobilised. The fight can climb no higher because I certainly couldn't tell you anything that happened other than the KO, but what a KO it was.





24. Vs Hypno-Disc (Extreme, All-Stars)

This is a fight which I admit gets a bit of a boost from the fact it's a personal ranking, because there are actually several flaws with this fight, which I'll get out of the way first. With the All-Stars being the first tournament filmed since Refbot gained the ability to offer red and yellow cards, and this being one of the first-round encounters in the tournament, the producers were very keen to showcase this new feature by being completely unsubtle in helping Hypno-Disc, constantly letting Dead Metal off its leash to attack Behemoth, which had been controlling the fight throughout.

If there wasn't a set match where Refbot was required to red card a House Robot, then he was never going to red card anything for the rest of Robot Wars, so I understand the need to showcase the feature. Otherwise, the only Refbot red cards we would see outside of immobilisations would be the time he red carded Sir Killalot in Extreme to absolutely no effect, and the cheeky Gravity booking in Series 7. It's just a pity the House Robot rule-break is used to assist an ailing Hypno-Disc against a valiant Behemoth.

That aside though, I have a lot of praise for this battle, because I think the context has been dumbed down over time, a similarity shared with Behemoth vs Mortis. Let it be reminded that this is only the third loss Hypno-Disc ever suffered, and before losing to Behemoth, it had only previously fallen to the current top two of the UK, Chaos 2 and Pussycat. Beating Hypno-Disc was a remarkable achievement at this stage, and while Chaos 2 and Pussycat pulled it off through single KO attacks, Behemoth got there through sustained pressure which was fantastic to watch.

I also have to give this fight a random little bit of credit for being one of only two times we saw Hypno-Disc using its self-righting mechanism, Hypno-Disc really was a bit of a Firestorm where you hardly ever saw it self-right. The battle ends with Hypno-Disc immobile over the flame pit, but I'd hardly call it a limp breakdown or anything, the KO felt believable, and it was the right time for Hypno-Disc to succumb. Behemoth claims the biggest upset of Extreme so far, and is rewarded for its victory against a two-time Grand Finalist with a very kind second-round draw against a robot which had never even won a heat. Haha.





23. Vs UFO, Crushtacean, Tartarus (Series 7)

Well it only took over half the list, but we finally have representation of Series 7 on the list! That leaves only one more series which has no representation on the list, and I'll certainly be alluding to it here! Across its four Seventh Wars fights (in three different competitions), Behemoth doesn't have a single bad fight, and this may have the lowest finish of the four, but I must stress that this is still a great little encounter - after all, it is a Series 7 first-round melee!

Admittedly the opening of the fight is not the best, because Behemoth does channel its inner Series 3, and flips Tartarus over for a KO within ten seconds. I don't blame them whatsoever, because Behemoth's previous fight resulted in a loss only because they played with an already beaten foe, and in a melee against a robot that had previously beaten Behemoth, it had bigger priorities. Tartarus falls near-immediately, but at least its makeshift team got to compete with their actual robot later into the series. And by later into the series, I mean literally one fight later.

With that out of the way, this boils down into a three-way encounter between the plucky new design of UFO, the 10th seed Behemoth - who really had no business being seeded above X-Terminator, might I add - and a robot which had defeated it in the past, Crushtacean. It's somewhat odd talking about Behemoth's encounter with Crushtacean in Series 7 before I've even written about their actual Series 5 head-to-head, but fortunately you all know the outcome of that fight.

Behemoth seemingly holds a grudge towards Crushtacean over this former loss, because they completely ignore the weaponless UFO which would have been a fairly straightforward KO (as Behemoth would later prove), and focus on the much more challenging invertible foe. I'm not sure if it was immediately obvious that UFO's flipper wasn't working, or if Behemoth did indeed want to seek out revenge, but amazingly it all goes according to plan! The tenth seed leaves a stunning impression and doesn't give Crushtacean a hope, not only winning the grudge match, but throws it out of the arena too! I'd certainly have some sympathy for Crushtacean on this loss, but they have a mighty World Championship run further into the series, much like the fellow Round 1 loser Supernova, so that's what we can focus on.

Behemoth is safely through and the battle is done, but weirdly enough I think it's the post-fight fight which makes me enjoy this battle the most. UFO, having safely qualified, is now welcome to attack the seeded machine, knowing full well that one flip would immobilise them. The inevitable does come, and Behemoth secures its triple KO, but UFO puts on a spirited effort up to that point, giving me some reason to believe in it ahead of the second round. It's a cute little bonus fight, almost separate from the actual melee itself, but Behemoth starts its Series 7 campaign in impressive fashion. It doesn't last long...





22. Vs Dantomkia, Pussycat, King B Powerworks (Series 7, All-Stars)

Robot Wars has a handful of head-to-head fights that many of us would love to see, especially for the benefit of fantasy tournaments, which feel as though they never happened on the show, even though they technically did take place. How would robots focused on control such as Lightning and Suicidal Tendencies 2 deal with a slippery customer like Stinger? Surely Hypno-Disc would defeat Pussycat in a rematch if it was given the opportunity, right? Gabriel 2 vs Cobra is an impossibly confusing matchup when waged head-to-head, leaving me with nothing but questions. I think that Razer would still be able to defeat modern Terrorhurtz, but may come unstuck against Nuts, but I know other people feel the opposite way!

If you were to purely scan results tables, we would have "answers" to all of these questions. Lightning and Suicidal Tendencies 2 have both defeated Stinger. Hypno-Disc challenged Pussycat again and failed. Gabriel 2 has officially beaten Cobra. I was right about Razer losing to Nuts, but wrong about it beating Terrorhurtz. The problem with these? These robots hardly engaged with each other in any of their fights, if they even engaged at all, because they were occupied fighting other robots in the same battle. We never truly found out which robot would beat the other, they just happened to enter the arena together and then live their own separate lives.

By far the most prominent example of a Robot Wars battle which DID technically happen but answered absolutely none of our questions is the time Behemoth "fought" Pussycat. Both robots were a staple of the entire classic run, and came close to fighting each other on various occasions. If Behemoth had stayed in the arena during its Mayhem with Thermidor II, it could have earned the coveted Annihilator place alongside Pussycat. If Shunt hadn't put Chompalot back onto its wheels during the Iron Maidens, both robots would have fought head-to-head for a trophy. Heck, there's probably a timeline where Behemoth ends up fighting Kill-E-Crank-E! Pussycat does indeed have a combat victory over Behemoth, but it never laid a finger on Behemoth to do so, and that's all thanks to the real star of this fight; Dantomkia.

While I don't want to discredit Pussycat's very swift immobilisation of King B Powerworks, all the glory falls to a masterful display from Dantomkia, in what might be its most impressive display in Robot Wars. Surely the only other contenders for me are its triple-KO against Hypno-Disc, S.M.I.D.S.Y and Sir Chromalot, or maybe its victory over Big Nipper in Series 8 at a push. Dantomkia is known for somewhat opportunistic OotA flips, where the robot was already perched against the arena wall, and Dantomkia only had to finish the job. This cannot be said for their superb KO on Behemoth, where they shepherded Behemoth from the centre of the arena, catching it from behind and shovelling it into a CPZ, which really is no mean feat on a robot as qualified as Behemoth. From there, a single flick put Behemoth straight out of there, and Dantomkia even follows this up by speeding King B Powerworks out of the arena. An incredible display from Dantomkia, and something it really needed to justify its position within the All-Stars tournament.

I wonder what would happen if Behemoth fought King B Powerworks...





21. Southern Annihilator, Round 1 (Series 4)

This fight is a really tricky one to view in isolation. The Southern Annihilator is often regarded as one of the best episodes of Robot Wars, and unless your name happens to be mystrsyko2, you can enjoy absolutely every fight in this episode as a complete package. If you do separate the fights individually, then I would say each battle has a quality which makes them stand out. I'll be covering the second round later into the list, but that battle is definitely your "Annihilator chaos" round, followed by one of the only fights in history where we see Razer take visible damage, and then the Annihilator final is famous for the Matilda attacks which followed the fight itself. This leaves the first round in an awkward spot, as it wants to be the six-way chaos we expect from the start of an Annihilator, but it was completely overshadowed by the much more chaotic and overall better second round.

That's not to say the fight isn't hectic, because there's still plenty going on. Vercingetorix stands up to much more punishment from Razer than I initially remembered, and even lands some axe blows on Razer and Attila the Drum. It's a shame that they seem to die on their own from no clear attack, but at least Razer and Spawn of Scutter help to disguise this with their own attacks. Behemoth and Onslaught don't get much attention due to the cameras focussing solely on Razer, but they all get at least one good attack each - again, a far cry from their standard in the second round, but enough to make this a good battle.

But that's exactly it - if I were rating these fights on objective grounds, then perhaps we'd see this Annihilator opener climb a little higher, but looking purely through a personal perspective, you're left with a "lite" version of a battle which I expect you won't be reading on this blog for quite a while. Certainly if you want to see Razer performing at its best, then this is one of its Annihilator highlights, but I'm left with a concerningly low amount of Behemoth content to discuss in comparison!





20. Vs Tornado (Extreme, Challenge Belt)

We reach the Top 20, and finally we get the first of 11 Behemoth fights to qualify for NJGW's Ultimate Countdown! The Challenge Belt battle between Behemoth and Tornado was actually the seventh Behemoth fight to appear on his list (so fifth-best), and I concur that the battle is of an extremely high quality, but I hold a personal preference for the six Behemoth fights that this outranked. And thirteen other Behemoth fights, apparently. Needless to say, this fight would jump exponentially higher in an attempt to rank the fights objectively, although tenth place would be the absolute ceiling for it.

Much like Behemoth's wins over Mortis and Hypno-Disc, I think it's once again necessary to remind people of the context behind this fight. Tornado's endless number of fights in Extreme do blend together, especially because so many of the fights took place within this very Challenge Belt tournament, but at the time of this fight airing, Tornado had only defeated Stinger and 3 Stegs to Heaven. No mean feat, but considering Behemoth had also defeated Stinger at this stage, there was nothing to suggest that the greenhorn Tornado would actually bring this one home, and the belt holder Behemoth entered as the strong favourite.

How wrong we were, as Tornado gets off to a rocketing start, and blasts Behemoth around the arena. To this day, I'm still impressed that Tornado was able to topple the huge Behemoth machine using only a strong drive and its spinning drum, and ultimately Tornado's victory was deserved. That's not to say it isn't close though - Behemoth completes plenty of lifts, and almost completely recovers its initial deficit to bring us a close, enjoyable fight. If I didn't already know the outcome of the fight before I watched it for the first time, I have no doubt that Behemoth stranding Tornado against the arena wall would have me completely on edge.

So what's the problem behind the fight which relegates it to 20th place? well, it was Tornado's victory here that kickstarted an awful chain of events over the course of Extreme. The Challenge Belt is never taken from Tornado, and we are forced to watch a slow defeat of the poorly performing Comengetorix, a fairly close but forgettable victory over Wild Thing, a completely neutered and very disappointing rematch against Chaos 2 which directly followed their previous encounter in the show's running order for some reason, and another completely expendable rematch against Pussycat which performed even worse than before. Even the Extreme 2 fight with Terrorhurtz isn't blameless! These factors don't directly affect the fight with Behemoth, but it speaks volumes if I would gladly remove this fight from Robot Wars in order to get a different timeline of events.





19. Vs Supernova (Series 5)

And finally, within the Top 20 of the whole list, I have now ranked one Behemoth fight from every series it entered! Both of Behemoth's fights in Series 5 were fantastic, and with there only being two of them, it was bound to be the final series to make its appearance on the Top 50 Behemoth Fights. By the same token, Series 5 could well be the next to use up all of its Behemoth fights - only Series 2 and Extreme 2 have run out of Behemoth battles at this stage! And, uh, Battle of the Stars, I guess...

Nevertheless, Behemoth vs Supernova was a much better battle of the Stars, as Supernova managed to do something that 90% of Round 1 losers from Series 5 failed to do - be a good robot! Supernova did fight at the auditions (apparently fighting Behemoth again, if Suren Balendran's memory is correct), so the producers must have known this was a fantastic machine, and I'm not so sure why it was drawn against a seeded machine which had already beaten Hypno-Disc. Maybe if Behemoth and Supernova genuinely did fight at the qualifiers, it was such a fantastic fight that we needed to see it on TV. I can see why that would be the case!

Having dealt with Hypno-Disc so easily, Behemoth was expected to romp this fight, but Supernova gave them a real challenge from the outset, landing some huge blows filled with titanium sparks. Behemoth was on the back foot, and really had to work to earn its victory. Naturally they do achieve this victory, but not without us getting to see Matilda rip Supernova's entire top lid off! Behemoth even decides to use its axe on the completely exposed internals of Supernova, in what could be considered quite an unsportsmanlike series of attacks, but it made for some great tension. Behemoth flips Supernova into the pit, and concludes what I believe to be the best Round 1 fight in the whole of Series 5.

It says a lot that the best Round 1 fight in the whole of Series 5 only just cracked the Top 20 Behemoth fights overall, but unfortunately that is testament to just how poor the first half of Series 5 heats were. I think most of the contenders for best Round 1 battle come from this very heat, thanks to great wins from Wheely Big Cheese and Axe-Awe, with only Wild Thing vs Trouble 'n' Strife and S3 vs Plunderbird 5 being the remaining candidates. We're even treated to a post-match interview with both teams, a real rarity for Series 5. How I wish we could've had more of this.





18. Vs Crushtacean (Series 5)

Well no sooner than Series 5 made its debut in this blog, it's already finished! Behemoth's two Fifth Wars encounters follow each other back-to-back in Series 5, because the balance between the two fights is very level. Whilst Behemoth vs Supernova had the superior content as a fight, Crushtacean vs Behemoth had a much bigger impact on the heat as a whole, and went down as one of the biggest upsets in the whole series.

Whilst I have very much relaxed on praising Series 5 in recent years, I would always ease my long-running issue with the lack of unseeded heat winners by reminding myself of the troubles that the lower seeds of Series 5 went through. Indeed, only one heat in the whole series allowed both seeded machines to reach the Heat Final, and it was the very first episode, with the questionable Heat B second round draws also following it directly. Really this was just an effort to make me see more value in the Fifth Wars than it may have actually deserved, but I still appreciate the mid-heat upsets that robots such as Corkscrew, Reactor II, Prizephita Mach II and most importantly Crushtacean were able to cause.

Diotoir vs Tornado aside, this honestly feels like the biggest upset across the entire heats phase of Series 5, with Behemoth entering this fight hot off the heels of an impressive Supernova victory and a very respectable campaign in Extreme - Crushtacean, meanwhile, was a complete newcomer that had only narrowly edged out a victory over Robochicken-Evo, still somewhat heralded as a joke entry. The fight itself is very quick, with Crushtacean capitalising on a single mistake by Behemoth, and making sure its response was critical, dumping Behemoth down the pit in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it knockout. It's a very neat KO which makes the fight respectable in its own right, but it's certainly the shock factor of this surprise victory which boosts Crushtacean's breakout performance far up the list. I do find it a shame that Crushtacean couldn't hold its win, with Behemoth effortlessly avenging it only two years later, but I suppose that adds even more longevity to the surprise of this outcome!





17. Vs Cherub (Series 9)

From one big upset to another, Behemoth's loss to Cherub in the Series 9 head-to-heads slides in next! After attending filming and watching Behemoth defeat PP3D (while also watching Cherub fail to move in both of the fights I saw it in), there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that Behemoth was heading for an Eruption rematch in the Heat Final, but I admit that I was quietly hoping that the kids could pull it off somehow. This wasn't quite the way I imagined anything beating Behemoth ever, but knowing that Behemoth would get its rematch with Eruption in the next series, I think it was worth it!

Cutting straight to the chase, Behemoth's claws didn't work, but they made for a curious fight regardless. If I were to rate this fight purely on the quality of the attacks, then this would barely escape the bottom five of the list, but Cherub vs Behemoth is a quietly enjoyable battle because of how remarkably close it was. Everyone seems to have a different opinion on which robot won, which is exactly why I'm going to dodge the issue entirely and hand the rest of this section over to Judge NJGW, who will deliver his insight and expertise on who truly deserved the victory! Do be aware that he hasn't actually told me who he's voting for...

AGGRESSION:

DEFINITION: Aggression refers to how aggressive the robot was deemed to be during the battle, not necessarily causing damage. The best example of this is Storm II vs The Grimreaper from Series 7, where although Storm II did not damage The Grimreaper sufficiently enough to immobilise it, it was continuously on the offensive throughout the entire battle. Prior to Series 8, aggression could only be outweighed by damage.

Cherub and Behemoth - Phroar what a category to start off with. I would split the two robots into their individual sections, but a lot of what I'm about to say will overlap with the other machine, because their Aggression styles largely fold over the other - so this will be the immediate summary passage.

Aggression Summary: Cherub plays this one in a varied style throughout. Cherub comes in with some jabs on Behemoth, but also has some patient periods, and then one or two moments where it is cautious and backs into space. Cherub also gets its sides exploited by Behemoth slightly more than the other way around, and although Behemoth largely struggles to move Cherub around when it gets at the flanks, this is more down to Cherub shaking off the pushes when they attack as opposed to Behemoth not being aggressive in its action. The main criticism in this fight of Behemoth is that it acts in a rather Firestorm II vs. Bolt From The Blue way - with Aggression that doesn't really go anywhere. I do agree that Behemoth has a few of these occasions that it fails to take advantage of, but having said that it does still place Cherub onto an arena hazard (or underneath, rather), drives it into the Arena Tyre, and finishes the fight by smuggling Cherub into a CPZ. Cherub takes advantage when it does have an aggressive moment - such as when it drives Behemoth into Dead Metal earlier on in the fight, but ultimately despite Behemoth botching a handful of moments, it still has enough good ones to be notable, while Cherub only really takes advantage of one moment. Cherub is patient and does well when it gets the chance, but a little bit more haste was needed for Cherub to truly be the beneficiary in this category, and it doesn't quite nail its approach enough. Cherub: 2/5 (6); Behemoth 3/5 (9)

DAMAGE:

DEFINITION: Damage refers to the amount of damage inflicted on the other robot as a result of one robot's actions. Notable examples of this include Hypno-Disc vs Wild Thing from Series 4, Razer vs Firestorm III from Series 5 and Dominator II vs 101, again from Series 4. Until Series 8, damage was considered to be the most important factor in a judges' decision, and could outweigh aggression in the event of a closely-fought battle.

Cherub - causes slight buckling to Behemoth's front grate.

Behemoth - no damage caused. Behemoth's closest call to claiming damage is when it slightly moves over the tyre section of Cherub's wheels and does absolutely nothing of course. Pussycat vs. Stinger-esque, I'm sure...

Damage Summary: This is a quite dour category on the face of it, but could it prove crucial? In the modern era, the very first attack can easily make a difference in how effective the opponent is for the rest of the fight. And incredibly, that is the case here. The first impact between the two does cause damage. It warps Behemoth's front grate, and affects the function of the weapon of a whole. Now, Cherub is a low, wide machine with random protruding notches anyway, so I struggle to see Behemoth getting underneath its opponent in most cases, but it's no lie that this first impact did give Behemoth an even greater disadvantage. It feels ridiculous to give Cherub points for Damage in any fight, but really the damage Cherub inflicted hindered its opponent's functionality more than, say, Carbide did on Eruption in the Series 10 Title Fight! So it has to get some credit. Of course, a lack of punctures or slices stops us going into fairytale land with this score, but Cherub still did better than Behemoth did in trying to hurt its opponent functioning properly.

Cherub: 2/5 (4); Behemoth: 1/5 (2)

CONTROL:

DEFINITION: Control refers to how well the robot was driven during the battle. It also gives weight to how much control the robot had over the flow of the battle. Ways to lose points for control include getting pushed around, and poor avoidance of arena hazards. Control is the third most important factor in a judges' decision.

Cherub - Cherub has a very interesting battle for Control. Patience is on display, and Cherub does prise under Behemoth on a good couple of occasions. Then we have the curious incidents where Cherub allows Behemoth to get at its sides too easily, but manages to wriggle Behemoth off at times too. Cherub's notable lax moment comes during Rogue House Robot, as a hesitant Toby gets caught by Dead Metal near the Floor Flipper.

Behemoth - As we found out in the Aggression category, Ant tries to get into Cherub's face most of the fight. However, to achieve that edge in the first category, Ant played a rash game, and this lead to many a mistake. Behemoth has a topsy-turvy fight throughout. Behemoth starts the fight poorly. Ant fails to bring his grabbers into play when he activates them, opens up his sides, and also allows Cherub to bundle Behemoth into Dead Metal. After a random charge into the Floor Flipper, Behemoth regains itself with a good spell. It comes in with a solid drive on Cherub's side - taking it over the Flame Pit, and then puts Cherub under the Floor Flipper (which despite not being a KO hazard, was still Behemoth putting Cherub into the arena hazards - which is a positive). After the restart Behemoth expertly glides to the side of Cherub and drives it into the Arena Tyre. But then Behemoth then displays its true Jekyll and Hyde quality of driving in this fight during Rogue House Robot. Behemoth quite cleverly notices that Dead Metal is after it, so it lingers near Cherub and then spins away. This allows Dead Metal to chomp down on Cherub instead of itself - expertly done! But then guess what? Ant, for whatever reason decides to attack the rear of Dead Metal, gets caught in the House Robot's pincers, and then bundles itself around in the corner for a few seconds. Truly strange. During the closing seconds, Behemoth gets more and more rash, and goes up Cherub's wedge twice in quick succession. Again though Ant mixes bad with good, as he swivels away from danger just before Cherub placed Behemoth into the CPZ, and puts Cherub into the CPZ itself! Even then though Ant fails to retreat from the CPZ, instead swinging further inside of it and being caught up during the final attack of the fight from Dead Metal. What a bizarre ride!

Control Summary: Cherub is safe, but timid. This allows it to get in some cute attacks and to shrug off Behemoth at times. But it also means that Behemoth has more opportunities to get into it. Behemoth meanwhile is proactive, but also reactive in a bad way. Which gives us more displays of good control, but also moments of really bad driving.

It's hard to judge this area. Cherub's good attacking moments largely come from Behemoth's errors, while Behemoth's good attacking moments come from its own work. Behemoth displays the higher tier of driving when it pulls off particular manoeuvres, but it also drives like a amateur on multiple occasions, which Cherub did not.

Ultimately with driving, it feels like consistency is necessary. Would you rather have a slow but safe driver on the road, or one that can get you to your supermarket in double-quick time, but then gets noticed by the Police for speeding, and has to do a Simpsons Hit and Run drive home? I ultimately think I have to give the edge to Cherub here. Behemoth's Control style helps it edge Aggression, but it also hurts its consistency here.

Cherub: 3/5 (3); Behemoth: 2/5 (2)

OVERALL SCORE:

BEHEMOTH - 13

Cherub - 13

OVERALL SCORE SUMMARY: My goodness, it's a tie! But in the Reboot's case, AGGRESSION CARRIES MORE WEIGHT, THEY'VE GONE FOR BEHEMOTH!!

It's safe to say that I now understand why I've never really had a true opinion on which machine won this fight, because I've just never really known! On my first watch I thought Cherub, then I thought Behemoth could maybe have the edge, and then about 6 months ago I just gave up trying to have an opinion on who won! Hopefully this has cleared things up for myself and others.

Why did the Judges pick the machine they did in real life: I think I will start to add this mini section at the end too in future entries. This blog was never designed to exploit the Judges and their 'bad' calls - it is just a way of exploring fights in detail and seeing my own interpretation. Most calls on the show are understandable in at least some fashion. So that means we should look at what the Judges saw too.

So here, where did Cherub gain the edge for the points? I would personally point towards the Control Category. I think Behemoth riding up Cherub's wedge and being moved into the CPZ would look even worse in real time, and the Judges could also have been inclined to give an extra point to Toby for his patience with Cherub and evading a few Behemoth side pushes. Could the Judges have also given Cherub an extra point for Damage? Probably not. But who knows, hey? Best of luck for the rest of this great blog, Toast. Just make sure you put Behemoth vs. Eruption in at number 1, and I'll come back to your courtroom whenever you want.





16. Vs Sabretooth, Donald Thump (Series 10)

Funny how Judge NJGW never specified which version of Eruption vs Behemoth he wanted me to put at the top, but fortunately their Series 8 whiteboard battle was ranked #1 in the Unrateables section, so consider it done! Immediately after I needed to enlist NJGW to arrive at a winner for a remarkably close Behemoth battle, we follow it up with another one! However, whilst Cherub vs Behemoth was a fight where I couldn't tell which robot deserved to win, Behemoth's Group Battle from Series 10 against Donald Thump and Sabretooth is one that I do think the Judges got wrong... but that's what makes it such an entertaining battle to rewatch!

Out of all the series openers in Robot Wars, this one is by far the most curious. After a chaotic but fun opening battle to Series 3, the following three series all showed the reigning champions flexing their robotic muscles on some weaker opponents, while Series 7 left its mark with a double-OotA to set the tone of the fights to come. Series 8 opens with the infamous yet iconic defeat of Razer, Series 9 opens with one of the best four-way melees of all time, and then Series 10 opens with... this??? Even the pre-fight seems like a strange way to open Series 10, where we have no opening titles, and instead we kick off the series with a collection of tweets accusing a grown man of being salty about losing a robot battle against schoolchildren, a car-swerving Gabriel Stroud inventing his third personality for his third consecutive series, and a barrage of Donald Trump jokes from a British Junior doctor...

...????? Words escape me sometimes. Nevertheless, with no previous Grand Finalists in sight, Behemoth kicks off the show with a fight that frankly would have been odd to watch at any point in the series, because after a double-knockout at the end of the fight, a Judges' decision has to be made from such a limited amount of content. I'll try to break down what the Judges had to base their decision on, before they declared Behemoth the winner of the three-way fight.

What's particularly difficult here is that not only are the genuine attacks in this fight so far and few between, but also a fair few of them are nullified entirely. Sabretooth takes fairly significant structural damage from Donald Thump, but Donald Thump breaks down and nobody gets to make use of the damage points. Donald Thump itself dies for seemingly no reason, and again, you can't attribute that KO to either Behemoth or Sabretooth. Behemoth is knocked out due to its removable link falling out, a very unimpressive way to go, while Sabretooth uses Behemoth's shape to flip itself over and get beached on its broken armour - which, of course, was Donald Thump's damage and Behemoth did nothing to trigger this at all!

Genuinely the only attacks you can actually consider when arriving at the decision is Behemoth getting one solid ram on Donald Thump before throwing itself over while Sabretooth scraped Donald with the drum (so still about even), Behemoth completing only one solid lift on Sabretooth (which still doesn't flip it over), with a little chuck into the Arena Tyre later on, and Sabretooth completing one solid slam on Behemoth before a series of mostly minor scratches from its drum spinner afterwards. Given that Sabretooth caused more damage to both of its opponents in the battle (minor at best, but Behemoth did lose a tooth from its scoop), and Behemoth exhibited some poor control by driving over the floor flipper, I do think Sabretooth deserved to win this one, especially as it was technically the more mobile machine at the end.

Still, the fact that I disagree with the Judges' call is what makes this fight even more curious with every rewatch. Whenever I revisit the fight, I want to gain a clearer understanding of how the Judges arrived at their conclusion in favour of Behemoth - did they see Donald Thump's true cause of death? Did they erroneously consider Sabretooth's KO to be a flip from Behemoth? Did they just owe Behemoth a break after the controversial Cherub loss? I don't know, but watching this tepid and curious encounter only makes me more keen to learn. I'll also reaffirm that although I don't agree with the Judges' decision, it was the best outcome in the long run, because without this victory, we may not have seen Behemoth fight Apollo in the Heat Final, and nobody wants that epic encounter to be trapped in the second round, do they?

Honestly, while writing this list, I've arrived at this fight several times for my next write-up, and then I kept elevating it higher and higher because it's just so much fun to analyse - sixteenth place is where this ultimately finishes. Oh and of course, bonus points for James Davies' instant comeback about Dara Ó Briain's lack of entangling hair, and the accompanying Trump hand.





15. Vs X-Terminator 2 (Series 4)

Here we are at the Top 15, and allow me to say, we've truly reached an upper tier from this point of the list onwards, with all 15 of the remaining fights being absolutely remarkable battles. OK, maybe there is one outlier within the Top 15, but for convenience just pretend that I have Behemoth vs Tornado in its place and then we can still suggest that fifteen whole Behemoth fights really are elite. It's such a statement when Behemoth has fifteen fantastic fights on top of its 35 other fights of still largely good quality - robots like Wheely Big Cheese, S3, and Aftershock don't even have fifteen fights altogether!

Coming in at the bottom of the top of the barrel is Behemoth's Heat Final with X-Terminator 2 from Series 4. This is the third fight in a row to be a really close Judges' decision, and had Jonathan Pearce not been so confident in his assertion that X-Terminator 2 had won it, I think more people would bring up the outcome as a point of contention. I do think X-Terminator 2 was the rightful winner of this battle, but I have watched this fight with someone who didn't know the outcome, making sure I was hiding Jonathan Pearce's prediction for the Judges' decision, and they thought Behemoth had won, so it goes to show how close this one really was!

What makes this such a tight battle is the way you value quantity versus quality. Behemoth commands the opening stages of this fight with some huge throws on X-Terminator 2, sending it tumbling across the arena, while it's X-Terminator 2 that leads the rest of the fight, but with much more tepid attacks that would sometimes fail to even complete themselves! Behemoth easily has the most notable attacks of the fight to its name, but X-Terminator 2 carries out more attacks overall, which is ultimately what the Judges favoured, with some assistance from the fact Behemoth was clearly low on battery power at the end, slowing down noticeably. You could say that was the only 'damage' that factored into the decision, making the outcome more obvious in that sense, but it remains that Behemoth left the biggest impression with its flips.

Ultimately it is the slower pacing of X-Terminator 2's stronger period which stops the fight from climbing any further up the list, but I still want to make it clear how much of a gap there is between the fifteenth-best Behemoth fight, and the nearby sixteenth and seventeenth. Only Behemoth could have such a good fight rank this "low" in its list of battles, but that's just testament to what we have in store for the remainder of the journey...





14. Vs Eruption, Cobra, Hobgoblin (Series 9)

Knowing that I'm a big fan of Eruption, it's hardly surprising to learn that all three of Eruption's fights against Behemoth have found their way into the top fifteen. This one is easily the hardest to view as a Behemoth fight, even though it's the only encounter where Behemoth emerged victorious - watching the fight, you see 50% Cobra on the defensive, 40% Eruption dominance, and then about 9% of the action is Behemoth. The other 1% is Hobgoblin's involvement.

This four-way battle was a breath of fresh air in a series renown for some fairly poor Group Battles. Granted, most of the poor opening melees followed this episode, and at the time of broadcast, the Heat 2 melees were simply continuing the strong form of the previous episode's opening battles, but seeing that this was the only Judges' decision in the entire first round of Series 9, we really do have a unique battle on our hands here. The Judges' decision itself is also quite a conundrum - do you reward the safe but passive Behemoth, or the aggressive but haphazard Cobra?

Generally I don't see a great deal of doubt that Behemoth did edge out the win over Cobra, and certainly nobody would question Eruption's qualification from the bout, but it's the kind of scenario we hadn't really seen since Medusa 2000 edged out Attila the Drum in Series 4. There's so much to enjoy in this fight, with Eruption's big flips providing plenty of air behind every attack, Cobra's determination being admirable while also providing pure entertainment as it willingly flings itself into danger to recover its stance, Behemoth's stealth as it reminds you that it's still there every time you think it's gone, and Hobgoblin's, uh, vibrant colour scheme, all bring points to the table.

Ultimately it is the fact that Cobra spends more time on its back than it does the right way up, and Behemoth's avoidance of conflict, which stop the fight from rising any higher. We all know that Cobra's crusher was only added to get the robot on TV, and it's not something the team actively wanted to use, so to see that very weapon costing them the fight as they scramble to get their wedgelets and full four tyres back on the ground is just as frustrating as it is entertaining. Hobgoblin's prompt immobilisation isn't something that takes away from the fight, although the fact it couldn't turn left or right from the outset is something I have to consider. For a Series 9 battle, this is stellar; for a Behemoth battle, there's still better to come.





13. Vs Arnold, Arnold Terminegger, Rambot (Series 4)

Demonstrating just how much I enjoy a close Judges' decision on the show, we now have the fifth extremely close decision in a row! Granted, this is one where Behemoth's own qualification was hardly in doubt, but after narrow losses to Cherub and X-Terminator 2, and narrow wins over Cobra and Sabretooth, it deserves a break - the real debate here is whether the second-place qualifier should have been Arnold, Arnold Terminegger or Rambot.

This is another curious one much like the Cherub fight, where I simply don't know what the outcome should have been. Throughout the fight, Arnold had the most meaningful attacks with some really good lifts, no doubt winning the Style category outright, especially factoring in its self-righting, while its control overall was far more consistent than Rambot's efforts. However, this is still part of the classic series, where damage carried considerably more weight than the other categories, and the fact of the matter is, Rambot even has Behemoth beat here. It may have only caused minor damage, using its spikes to punch holes in the side of Behemoth, but those are damage points that none of the lifting robots could claim to have caused.

Rambot even has the edge over Arnold on aggression too, but its driving errors really were sloppy, some of the most punishable mistakes I've seen on Robot Wars, which is ultimately what cost it the fight. Nevertheless, it made for fantastic fun, seeing all three robots really go at it. Behemoth being the sixth seed in Series 4 has always been a little suspect, I don't think it deserved quite that high of a ranking, but this performance went some way to justify why Behemoth had already become one of the big dogs in Robot Wars, even with only one heat win under its belt - and with none to come for another seventeen years!





12. Vs Carbide (Series 8, Head-to-Head)

Carbide is a factor in Robot Wars which plagued my viewership while watching the reboot air live on TV. Like many, I didn't want this powerful robot to consistently win against every robot in the UK following on from its Series 8 campaign, after it dispatched of most robots in Series 9 and 10 with seemingly little effort behind its victories. Although the destruction was satisfying to watch, I failed to get behind a three-time Grand Finalist which I perceived as having a strategy of "turn on the bar spinner and win".

In more recent times, I've actually come to appreciate Carbide's battle style a lot more than I used to. Much as I still would have liked it to come under any sort of danger in Series 9, one of my many trips to Team Immersion HQ has given me a more detailed understanding of the way Carbide attacked its opponents to inflict the most damage, which is something that I've keenly been looking out for when rewatching its fights, and it does add a lot more enjoyment to the battles as I watch Carbide connect its perfect shots. To some, this may be obvious, but it's something I certainly missed.

So let's break it down then - what's the trick that makes every Carbide shot so powerful? From the driver's perspective, the idea is to drive your robot against the resistance of your own bar spinner. Due to the spinner rotating clockwise at such a rapid spee