BoxRec

I remember seeing it as a 12 year old. It looked like a load of bollocks then so why anyone would want a copy is beyond me (try one of the download programs - Emule etc)

It was real.

Do you think if it was staged it would have been so dull & uneventful?

It went down like this: It was planned to be staged, with some elaborate up & down and outcome, however at the last minute Ali decided the people should be given a real fight.

Hence Inoki to save himself getting his block knocked off laid on his back in a spider position for 15 dull rds kicking Ali in the ankles to keep him away.

Ali ended up in hospital with severe bloodclots in his lower legs due to Inokis tactics. Nothing fake about that.

You could find it on youtube last time I bothered with it....boring, pointless stuff.

Here's a link to a page about the Ali/Inoki "fight" from an Asian Fighting Arts website. Enjoy... (I know, that's not a word that normally comes up in conjunction with the Ali v. Inoki fiasco.)

It was real, but pretty obvious neither guy was really trying to hurt the other.

Ali was made to wear gloves and had to fight like a boxer, and wasn't allowed to throw full 'power punches'. Otherwise I'm sure it would have been a different looking scenario altogether.

Has anyone here seen the Inoki vs Leon Spinks 'fight'?

DoubleM wrote:Ali was made to wear gloves and had to fight like a boxer, and wasn't allowed to throw full 'power punches'. Otherwise I'm sure it would have been a different looking scenario altogether.

The guy was pretty much giving up the mount the entire fight....at some Ali would've been able to jump on him and pound away, but you can't exactly do that effectively with gloves on....just a pathetic pathetic pathetically terrible idea. I hope the marketeers who came up with that idea were hung by their ballsacks in downtown Tokyo.

It was somewhat real...I think they both tried to win based on the rules they agreed to after much negotiation. No flying dropkicks......Ali has to wear gloves......So Inoki simply averted danger by playing "crab" for the whole fight and for the most part avoided being hit.

It was such a snoozefest....at least Andre the giant and Wepner had some real action with Andre dumping Wepner over the ropes after being very much annoyed with some solid body shots from Chuck. I do think those shots got the Giants attention and he decided to dispense with the formalities and throw his opponent into the crowd.

It was a night of medicore to fair entertainment value in real time.....not much for viewing post event though.

I like how every one here just talks about the rules limited Ali's arsenal in order to protect Inoki. So Ali was not allowed to hit Inoki, and Inoki just laid there because he ws affraid huh?

Did you guess know Inoki was not allowed to take Ali to the ground, nor was he allowed to apply any submission holds?

If you guess are familiar with these type of mixed fights, ussually the grappler takes down the striker and then subs them with ease.

Its not like ALi had a sprawl or sub defense, lol.

But sure, the rules were there to protect Inoki from getting killed

I thought the restrictions were about even

BoxBuzz wrote:I thought the restrictions were about even

If you watch the fight clips on youtube you can even see Inoki have Ali's leg and going for a toe hold, but get stood up (by Judo Gene Lebell, who was reffing. You might remember him. He actually fought an MMA match back in the 60s against a journeyman boxer whom he choked out).

There was plenty of restrictions on both guys, making the fight a terrible bore. It was a shoot, that is for sure. If it was fake it would have been much more exciting and have more drama.

But I have to think that the restrictions helped Ali last the distance. I just don't see him not getting taken down and submitted. He was a fish out of water on the ground for the 10 seconds he was there, and was already in a sub. Inoki didn't try to finish with it, but he wanted to show the Japanese fans (who are much more submission aware than american fans of that time) that he could have.

In America the fight is remembered as a big joke. In Japan they celebrate the anniversary and it is much more historic. Ali is a great boxer, and a great fighter, but if the restrictions were lifted he would have been in trouble fast. If he was trained in more than just boxing (like submissions and takedown defense) than he might have won cause he is a very gifted athlete.

Either way it ended up being an ugly draw in a fight that is viewed in two different lights on two different sides of the world.

In hindsight I am a lil surprise this fight even got put together. How did this fight even turn into a real shoot like that? In terms of the fight itself it was a failure. In terms of mixed martial arts (the sport that UFC and Pride promotions are), it was a major historic event.

I dont think Ali would have done well with a real solid grappler at all.
All that grabbing and holding he used to do , I see him getting dumped on his head and submited.