Riddick vs. Predator: Who Wins?

This might sound like a silly question, especially since a lot of people that know anything about the Predator would likely assume that with infrared vision that the alien hunter would eliminate Riddick quickly. But the matchup is a little more even if one is being honest since no matter how much of a debate there is, the fact is that in the movies, the Predator’s vision has been defeated a couple of times. Tack onto that the fact that Riddick isn’t a fool and he’s definitely not the type to go about fighting someone straight-up unless he knows he can take them. It’s easy to think that he would do a quick assessment of the Predator and perhaps think of another way to come at him. Defeating the heat vision wouldn’t be too tough since, like any other creature, the Predator has to focus on whatever is in front of it, meaning it operates within the same parameters of most sentient beings since it can only attack what it can see. This leaves a humongous opening for Riddick given that he’s one of the best in the movies at sneak attacks. 

It’s true that he appears to prefer a straight fight face to face, but it’s also been seen that he’ll scout out a situation before striking and that he can fade away as if he was never there. The Predator does have a lot of funky gadgets and the helmets that these creatures wear can do all sorts of things now, including following footprints that even an experienced tracker couldn’t find thanks to the body heat and other settings their helmets possess. Again, it stands to reason that Riddick would find a way to keep the Predator disoriented and searching all around for him if he happened to know about his infrared vision since the guy has taken on opponents that might actually give the Predator a hard time. 

In some ways this looks like a serious mismatch since sending a human up against a Predator is hardly ever a fair fight. But when one recalls that Riddick is a Furyan, a race that’s essentially human but far tougher, stronger, and quicker, that disparity starts to fade away. And when considering how tough Riddick is compared to his own people thanks to the life he’s led, the mismatch becomes a little more even since it’s likely that the Predator is still stronger than Riddick, but in terms of how vicious either one of them can be, it feels as though things are a lot more even than some might want to think. Keep in mind what Riddick had to do to survive in the first movie that people had the chance to see him, Pitch Black, and then think about how he had to survive before that. This is a guy that had a surgical procedure done on his eyes so that he could see people in the dark, which might even mean that he could have an advantage against the Predator in some manner. It’s hard to say if it would make a difference, but one thing that both characters have is the fact that they operate on instinct as well as experience since Riddick is a survivor and the Predator is a hunter first and foremost. At that point it becomes a matter of who is better at their fieldcraft and how quickly Riddick can pick up on how the Predator operates. One has to remember, Riddick is insanely patient. 

That might be one thing that would make a serious difference since while the Predator has a great amount of patience, Riddick has shown in his movies that his reconnaissance skills are beyond reproach and that he can wait out quite a few people. He can also take his pound of flesh, and more when it comes to finally taking his retribution on someone he’s usually pretty thorough. It would still be a vicious fight between the two, there’s no doubt of that, and in a toe to toe brawl, the Predator would still be likely to come out on top, and the best that Riddick could hope for would be a draw, meaning they would both be cut open, dying, and unable to do much other than crawl away. Fans of the Predator would likely claim that the hunter would detonate the bombs they’re known to carry, meaning it would be a complete wash. 

The best scenario for either combatant has a lot to do with how badly they want to take each other down, and how patient they’re willing to be. For Riddick, it would be the knowledge of what the Predator could do, and what he could accomplish with that knowledge. For the Predator, it would be finding a way to get Riddick down before the killer could figure out anything vital to his survival. In the end, it would be one awesome fight.