When I've jabbed him enough, I'll knock him out." 'If this fight were a real go, I think that it would scare Ali away'Įven today, Inoki is hard to avoid in Japan. What's karate from a distance man? Nothing. It's going to be a lot of fun and it's just a joke.' Well, when we got over there, we found out no one was laughing."Įither way, Ali was none too flustered about the prospect, as he told the Guardian's Keating: "The guy comes for me. "Ali's fight in Tokyo was basically a Bob Arum thought-up scam that was going to be 'ha-ha, ho-ho.
#DR FARRAGO FOREST VA PROFESSIONAL#
Professional wrestlers are performers, I thought, the thing is a fraud."įerdie Pacheco, Ali's doctor, has a different story: "Now Herbert came to me and he said these Japanese people have come to him with all kinds of money to go over and fight this wrestler, Inoki, in Japan. The venue was the Budokan in Tokyo, and the date 26 June.īob Arum had signed on as promoter, he remembered the deal happening like this: Inoki accepted the challenge and, eventually, Ali accepted a $6m final offer from Inoki's backers. Supposedly, Ali bragged to Yada: "Isn't there any Oriental fighter who will challenge me? I'll give him one million dollars if he wins." The stage-managed remark was worked into headline news in Japan. The idea of fighting Inoki supposedly came about in April 1975, when Ali was introduced to Ichiro Yada, president of the Japanese Amateur Wrestling Association, at a reception in the US. It's only 30 years on and the facts are already a mess, recounted by a disparate set of narrators, each as unreliable as the other. The story of exactly how Ali came to be in that ring, underneath Antonio Inoki's spandex-clad ass, is tough to untangle. 'Six million dollars, that's why,' the champion replied." 'What's karate from a distance man? Nothing!' If his stated plan to retire at the end of the year was true, his answer was understandable.
"Why fight a wrestler and demean the boxing title in many people's eyes, Ali was asked. After his fight against Young, Ali held a press conference in his hotel bedroom, and held forth from underneath the covers. Of course the whole thing stank of the circus, and there were plenty of people who said so. The two would be contesting the title of toughest man on the planet. It was a hell of a sales pitch for a fight. Anyone thrown out of the ring would have 20 seconds to get back in. There was to be no kneeing, kicking, or hitting below the belt. Ali would wear four-ounce gloves, and would be able to tag out of any grapple by touching the ropes. A special set of rules had been agreed for this prototype mixed martial arts fight.
#DR FARRAGO FOREST VA FULL#
Inoki will be able to run the full range of all-in wrestling moves and use ploys including karate chops, at which he is, according to Ali at his wide-eyed best, 'the most fearsome man in who-le, wi-de, wo-rld.' Anything goes apparently." "Dunne done with, Ali spent last night getting himself and us psyched up for his next superdooper smackeroo – in a few days he ups his marquee from here to Tokyo where he takes on the gigantic Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki.
Chastened, in May Ali travelled to Munich, where he knocked out Yorkshireman Richard Dunn in five rounds.įrank Keating was there for the Guardian. In April, he turned up overweight for a bout with Jimmy Young, and was taken a full 15 rounds by a 15-1 outsider. In January he beat a Belgian named Jean-Pierre Coopman with a knockout in the fifth. At the age of 33, he has suggested that it would be his final year before retirement. It is eight months on from his third and final fight against Joe Frazier, the Thrilla in Manila and Ali has been busy boxing stooges. There are some things a person should never have to see happen to a man like Ali.
How about Ali flapping about on the canvas while an 18 stone wrestler sits on his face? Who wants to remember Ali that way? Standing snarling over Sonny Liston? Shadow boxing on the bottom of a swimming pool? Leaning into the ropes as George Foreman pummels his kidneys? Stooping, shaking, to light the Olympic flame?
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