Tamago
05-19-2004, 03:17 AM
The words within the dotted lines is the story (originally from sherdog.net, with some editting by me), and my opinion following outside of it.
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This match was the one where Ali fought a pro-wrestler in what was known as one of the first televised mixed martial arts events (sort of). To this day in the MMA world, it is known as a legendary fight, and nobody here realizes the genius tactics of Inoki.
Ali thought he was going to have it easy against some stupid Japanese Pro-Wrestler. Ali was familiar with Pro Wrestling at the time as he based his entire charisma off Georgous George, and he knew it wasn't real. (Not everyone did at the time)
Ali scouted Inoki a few days before the fight, and got scared as hell when he saw the grappling that Inoki was doing. He demanded a change to the rules.
1. Since Inoki wore no gloves, he was not permitted to use any closed fist punches, or any strikes to the head.
2. Inoki was not allowed to grapple with Ali or take him down to the ground.
The rules were heavily stacked in Ali's favor, and it was going to take one hell of a gameplan for Inoki to defeat the worlds greatest fighter. Throughout the fight Inoki used diving leg kicks to attack Ali's mobility and possibly leave his legs so weak that he could not stand or gain enough ground to throw a punch. This strategy left Ali unable to attack him with crisp punches as he was always wear of Inoki dropping with another leg kick. The bout was scored a draw by all three judges and this was in spite of Inoki losing one point late in the fight for inactivity.
The crowd booed non-stop and were furious with the lackluster fight they were watching. Journalists did nothing but trash the fight and the western world only heard of "Ali fighting some Japanese Martial Artist who fought like a little girl and was running the whole match". But days later when the specific rules for the match were revealed to the public, and people became aware of the great strategy that Inoki used to battle Ali, he became a legend in Japan. And to this day stadiums will roar louder for him than for any current fighter.
Ali continued his great boxing career and went down as arguably the greatest of all time. After his retirement his managers revealed that a large part of it was due to Inoki's leg kicks on Ali, and that he had never been the same since.
Truly one of the most important fights in the history of man to man combat. Not the most exciting, but so much was at stake, and so much came out of it. Currently Inoki and Ali are good friends and visit each other yearly at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye events where Ali is always a guest of honor. Ali Gave Inoki his "Bom-Ba-Ye" theme song in tribute to his fighting spirit.
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Studying mixed martial arts has open my eyes to the world of fighting like it never has before. I never imagined that a pro-wrestler could take on the best boxer in the world and actually cause so much damage, especially with the odds stacked high against him. Now I understand that knowledge plays a big role in styles match-ups. Even Ali's coach admitted that a pure boxer could never beat a pure wrestler; that's why they implemented the rules in his favor.
In my eyes Inoki wasnt a good representation of how martial artists (standup) were, and continues to inspire future generations of MMA fighters. If you've seen the fight yourself, you'd think it was a boring, WWE-worked match. But MMA practitioners like me can see beyond the surface and notice that a great battle is taking place.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This match was the one where Ali fought a pro-wrestler in what was known as one of the first televised mixed martial arts events (sort of). To this day in the MMA world, it is known as a legendary fight, and nobody here realizes the genius tactics of Inoki.
Ali thought he was going to have it easy against some stupid Japanese Pro-Wrestler. Ali was familiar with Pro Wrestling at the time as he based his entire charisma off Georgous George, and he knew it wasn't real. (Not everyone did at the time)
Ali scouted Inoki a few days before the fight, and got scared as hell when he saw the grappling that Inoki was doing. He demanded a change to the rules.
1. Since Inoki wore no gloves, he was not permitted to use any closed fist punches, or any strikes to the head.
2. Inoki was not allowed to grapple with Ali or take him down to the ground.
The rules were heavily stacked in Ali's favor, and it was going to take one hell of a gameplan for Inoki to defeat the worlds greatest fighter. Throughout the fight Inoki used diving leg kicks to attack Ali's mobility and possibly leave his legs so weak that he could not stand or gain enough ground to throw a punch. This strategy left Ali unable to attack him with crisp punches as he was always wear of Inoki dropping with another leg kick. The bout was scored a draw by all three judges and this was in spite of Inoki losing one point late in the fight for inactivity.
The crowd booed non-stop and were furious with the lackluster fight they were watching. Journalists did nothing but trash the fight and the western world only heard of "Ali fighting some Japanese Martial Artist who fought like a little girl and was running the whole match". But days later when the specific rules for the match were revealed to the public, and people became aware of the great strategy that Inoki used to battle Ali, he became a legend in Japan. And to this day stadiums will roar louder for him than for any current fighter.
Ali continued his great boxing career and went down as arguably the greatest of all time. After his retirement his managers revealed that a large part of it was due to Inoki's leg kicks on Ali, and that he had never been the same since.
Truly one of the most important fights in the history of man to man combat. Not the most exciting, but so much was at stake, and so much came out of it. Currently Inoki and Ali are good friends and visit each other yearly at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye events where Ali is always a guest of honor. Ali Gave Inoki his "Bom-Ba-Ye" theme song in tribute to his fighting spirit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Studying mixed martial arts has open my eyes to the world of fighting like it never has before. I never imagined that a pro-wrestler could take on the best boxer in the world and actually cause so much damage, especially with the odds stacked high against him. Now I understand that knowledge plays a big role in styles match-ups. Even Ali's coach admitted that a pure boxer could never beat a pure wrestler; that's why they implemented the rules in his favor.
In my eyes Inoki wasnt a good representation of how martial artists (standup) were, and continues to inspire future generations of MMA fighters. If you've seen the fight yourself, you'd think it was a boring, WWE-worked match. But MMA practitioners like me can see beyond the surface and notice that a great battle is taking place.