I remember years back reading somewhere, I can’t recall where, that Freddie Pacheco had said that he thought that the damage done to Ali’s legs in the match had a great effect on his later career.
Anyway, the final paragraphs of the Meltzer story got me thinking about this again. How much did the Inoki fight speed up the decline of Ali?
Two extracts from the Meltzer piece are quoted below. One is about the rules of the bout and the other about the bout itself.
For those who are interested, Meltzer's website is http://www.f4wonline.com/
First about the rules of the bout...
And then the match itself.......A set of rules were put together for this last minute shoot. No takedowns below the waist, because they didn’t want anything to happen to Ali’s legs. No closed fist punches. No kicks to the head and body. The only reason they didn’t say no kicks to the legs, which proved to be the key move of the match, was that nobody in those days even knew what low kicks were. Particularly, they banned the back suplex Inoki used to beat Ruska. No submissions. Inoki could use Greco-roman takedowns but no ground and pound. If Inoki grabbed Ali or tried to put him in any kind of move, Ali could get a break by grabbing the ropes and they would be reset standing. Inoki in essence was facing one of the greatest heavyweight boxers who ever lived, while wearing a straitjacket....
…. Little happened in the first three rounds. The fourth round opened with Inoki again going to his back, and Ali telling him to quit fighting on the floor like a girl.
The sliding leg kicks weren’t easy to hit on someone with Ali’s foot speed, but as the match went on, Inoki was hitting more of them. Several times Inoki’s kicks to Ali’s left leg would sweep him off his feet, but Ali was always either able to get to the ropes or get back up before getting pinned. When Inoki would go for an upper body takedown, Ali would always be able to get to the ropes. Once Inoki knocked Ali off balance, and snuck a single leg to get him down, and while on top threw a couple of hammer fists until LeBell jumped in and stopped him. Ali tried to make it entertaining, but as the fight went on, both were frustrated. Inoki wouldn’t stand, rendering Ali’s only offense useless. By the eighth round, Ali’s left leg looked like hell, and it got worst. Ali continued to wobble or go down from kicks. Ali did hit Inoki with two jabs in the 13th round, which except for a razor-close second round and the 15th, are the only rounds Ali could have possibly won.
In the end, Inoki caught Ali with 64 sliding low kicks, while Ali caught Inoki with five punches. Ali ended up hospitalized with broken blood vessels in his leg, and ended up with his left leg in a cast from hip to ankle. While nobody but his trainers years later ever would say it, the damage took a major toll on Ali. Ali’s true last epic performance was a year earlier, the famed “Thrilla in Manila” with Joe Frazier, a fight that probably took its toll on both men. Ali was 52-2 going into the Inoki fight. After the Inoki fight, Ali went 4-3 from that point on, never knocking an opponent out again, and his legs were what gave out on him first.