That's not a match the public would want to see.. No reason to do it.ewenhay wrote:How do you think Chamberlain would have got on versus Inoko?
They went crazy for the Boxer vs Wrestler aspect of Ali-Inoki.. Inoki was unknown in the US, but the thought of Ali fighting a wrestler(which it wasn't because Inoki wasn't allowed to wrestle - they were sold a bill of goods) fascinated the public.. Ali didn't fight. He stalled around. Inoki made a sincere effort to do his best under severely limited circumstances. He scored heavily while Ali didn’t do crap all night. I was greatly disappointed because no wrestling was happening. Nothing but 1 man kicking another man monotonously in the legs. Inoki decked Ali a couple times with those shots but they weren't recorded as knockdowns for whatever reason. Maybe because the referee was hand selected by Ali's team.
They went big time for Chamberlain-Ali.. Just about everybody knew Wilt had a 100 point game and was an irresistible force on the basketball court.. He could shake off defenders or cut around them.. It intrigued the public how anyone would deal with such an unstoppable athlete in a 1-on-1 sport. I was fascinated by the match-up but didn’t believe Ali would ever step into a ring with Chamberlain.