BoxRec

Check out the abridged clip of it on Youtube.
Man,its surreal.

Wepner-Andre= worked

Ali-Inoki= who knows (Ali had leg damage after the bout)

Spinks-Inoki= worked

John L. Sullivan- William Muldoon= legit

Jack Dempsey-Cowboy Luttrell= legit (even at 45 Dempsey knocked Luttrell out and through the ropes like he done to Luis Firpo)



Check out my PAUL WIGHT: ANOTHER NOVELTY thread in the Current forum, and you'll find a short list of professional wrestlers who really went into boxing and fought real fighters. Archie Moore himself fought three different wrestlers and knocked them out rather easily.

Well, there are pro wrestlers that are complete clowns and there are some like Lou Thesz, Karl Gotch etc. who were cripplers in real life.
I dont know what Cowboy Lutrell was about, but that victory for Dempsey is nothing to brag about I'D say.
Now if someone can come up with a legitimate win for a boxer over say Lou Thesz , Id like to hear about it.
I hear he went with Jersey Joe Walcot , but it was probably some kind of work.
Of course pro wrestlers in a boxing match against a champ. is not gonna work out well for the grappler.

Thesz, in my opinion (Dec will probably disagree with me) was the last of the true wrestling champions. Thesz and prior was men who had a genuine knowledge of submission holds, the human anatomy and from time to time would do 'works' to keep the wrestling business more vibrant. Like how Ed Strangler Lewis was virtually undefeated for 20 years, and due to his dominance there was a decline in wrestling because it was boring knowing that nobody could beat Lewis---so Lewis did the JOB for guys like Wayne Munn (football player). In a career of 6,200 matches he lost "33 times", where only 5 of the 33 were more than likely legit.

But by the time Thesz was champion, it was 60/40, the wrestlers did pride themselves on their abilities and would from time to time have straight shoots, but it was more theatre by then with 'airplane spins' and 'backbreakers' and other ridiculous moves being incorporated into the matches....Thesz though, was prideful enough, to say he would NEVER appear on any cards that featured women wrestlers, men wrestling bears or any other kind of animal, and midget wrestlers....because Thesz was 'old school' and believed in straight up wrestling.

But make no mistake, Thesz would do the JOB, just like anyone else.


Danny Hodge, to the best of my knowledge, was both an amateur boxing and wrestling champion and for a time was a professional boxer, before losing by KO in the 9th to Nino Valdes (most famous for being the supposed "50th" opponent had Marciano not retired at 49-0)...there was a match-up (because Hodge later became a wrestler) between himself and wrestling champion Terry Garvin in 1964 which was scheduled for 15 rounds and Hodge knocked Garvin out in the 3rd.

As far as 'mixed' fights....I take John L. Sullivan's match with William Muldoon as an example: Sullivan came out trying to hit Muldoon, but the American Wrestling champion (and later trainer of Sullivan) reached out, grabbed Sullivan's arms, then his body, and went for a slam....the Boston crowd was in such an uproar that their hometown hero was slammed by Muldoon that the crowd rushed the ring and the bout had to be called off.

That's the ONLY 'wrestler vs boxer' match up that I know of that was possibly real that had a wrestler wrestle and a boxer box.

You want to see matches like that, I suggest you watch MMA.

As the Ali - Inoki/Andre - Wepner affair took place just about six months into my becoming a die hard boxing fan, I've always had a fondness & facination for those bouts, as well as any "mixed matches" involving boxers.

In retrospect it's amusing how most accounts in the aftermath of that night seemed to indicate that the Ali - Inoki match was a work, while the Andre The Giant - Chuck Wepner bout was some sort of shoot. When in reality it was the other way around.

Common sense alone would tell us that were Ali - Inoki a worked match then they'd have surely made a MUCH more entertaining affair out of it. Instead they went through that deadly dull dance of theirs for 15 rounds that left egg on both their faces.

But, Ali being Ali, he escaped much of the criticism for it & it was pretty much swept under the rug very soon afterward as he prepared for the Ken Norton rubbermatch just a couple months later. Unfortunately for him, Inoki didn't have that luxury or "pull" with the public in Japan & it took him a couple of years to "live down" what the Japanese fans & press saw as a bit of a disgrace.

As for Wepner's "bout" with Andre, that was CLEARLY a work.

For absolute proof all one needs to do is consider those supposedly "viscious headbutts" that The Giant inflicted on Wepner during the course of it that somehow magically failed to open so much as a nick on the notorious "Bayonne Bleeder".

Then there was the finish that for some reason so many post-match accounts referred to as Andre picking Wepner up & "throwing him into the 6th row" of the audiance, when in actuality all he did was heave him over the top rope onto the apron outside. After which Wepner went down onto the arena floor ...

To my eyes, the only thing that appeared to to be the least bit legit about that contest was the heat in the ring between the two corners in the aftermath. But even that may have been pre-arranged or improvised. I don't know.

There has always been as much speculation on the Ali-Inoki bout as much as any other boxing match Ali ever had. Was it a work? Was it fake? The 'story' was that Ali was told that his match with Inoki was to be a work, to which Ali refused to participate in a match that would deceive the public, to which ended up being Inoki laying on the floor the majority of the time being deathly afraid of Ali hitting him and kicking at the HW champions legs.

However, despite Ali landing roughly 2 punches the entire 15 rounds, the fight was declared a draw...irregardless Ali suffered the damage physically while Inoki suffered just as great an indignity for being somewhat a laughing stock in his own country. Inoki would later go on to have matches with Wepner, Mildenberger and Spinks...

There's a loop hole that doesn't seem to fit into this, though. If Ali didnt want to participate in a match that would deceive the public, then why would he do a skit where Gorilla Monsoon more or less kicked his ass with an air plane spin? Or do several wrestling events being either a referee or a special guest enforcer? Those were obviouslt scripted.

The myth continues...