When World’s Collide: Ali vs Inoki

When World’s Collide: Ali vs Inoki:

By Henry Walter

In 1976 Muhammad Ali was enjoying his second reign as the Heavyweight Champion of the World. Ali was past his best at thirty-four and hadn’t looked particularly impressive in his most recent title defence. When the opportunity arose for a large pay-day without him having to go through a gruelling boxing training camp he jumped at the chance.

In early 1975 Ali had commented that he believed he was the best fighter on the planet and his comments had made headlines in Japan. They hadn’t gone down well with Japanese wrestling champion Antonio Inoki and a boxing vs wrestling fight was arranged for June of 1976 in Japan.

Inoki had been trained in several forms of wrestling and was an expert in catch wrestling. He was the reigning National Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion and was held in extremely high regard by the Japanese public.

The fight drew tremendous hype and fight fans the world over were eager to see which style would prevail. The fight was screened to a huge viewing audience in thirty-four countries around the world.

As soon as the fight began a fired up Inoki charged at Ali and attempted a flying leg kick which Ali easily avoided. That moment was about as exciting as the fight would get.

After his opening kick Inoki, seemingly terrified of being hit by Ali’s punches, opted to lie on the floor. When Ali got near him he would kick out at Ali’s legs but otherwise the Japanese giant seemed content to lie on his back out of range.

Inoki’s tactics, whilst fairly effective in stopping Ali attacking him, did not make for good viewing and the audience quickly grew frustrated.

Ali began walking around the ring, out of reach of Inoki’s kicks, taunting him by shouting-

“Coward Inoki! Inoki no fight!”.

This did nothing to spur Inoki into action and he remained on his back.

In the sixth round a frustrated Ali tried to pull Inoki up by his leg and ended up tangled with Inoki on the canvas. Inoki elbowed Ali in the temple and referee Gene LeBell broke the fighters citing a fowl.

Inoki remained on the floor for most of the fight continuing to kick out at Ali’s legs as Ali taunted. Ali managed to land just six punches in the whole fight with the highlight being a decent jab that snapped Inoki’s head back. Another brief highlight occurred when Ali briefly managed to grapple Inoki into a front face lock after Inoki had missed with a leg kick.

After fifteen rounds devoid of action the fight was scored a draw. Inoki, embarrassed by his negative performance, later tried to claim that secret rules had prevented him from taking Ali down but fight referee Gene LeBell confirmed this hadn’t been the case.

Neither fighter emerged from the bout with any credit and the event was largely forgotten about until Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Conor McGregor reignited fight fans interest in the often forgotten match. It remains the most famous example of a cross over fight to this day.

The well-respected journalist and author Josh Gross covered the fight in more detail in his excellent book Ali vs Inoki.