How Much Did the Inoki Fight Damage Ali ?

He had blood clots in his lower legs which is typical of being hit often on the legs. Any blood clot can kill. I am sure it did him no good but Ali was on the downside in any event.

 

The Norton fight was the first fight to me where Ali really seemed ordinary. His reflexes were dulled, his punches lacked snap. When he danced, it was like a guy doing a bad Ali impression. This is the first fight where he took a beating. The Inoki fight was so stupid! Surely a fight against a more "theatrical" wrestler was available. Inoki didn't seem to grasp the "entertainment" side very well.

 

it's weird, inoki is wrestling royalty, a legit fighter and had no problem going over. it makes more sense that ali couldn't or wouldn't work and that mess was the only way to put the match on safely.

 

Inoki was also a shoot fighter, and they changed the rules at the last minute so that he was not allowed to lock up. Wanting to win, he used a strategy that would allow him to.

Ali deserved what he got. If he didn't think that he could win, then he shoudn't have signed to fight. If he got cold feet, then he should have cancelled.

Hate to say it, but it is 100% true. They tried to screw Inoki and had to eat a nice big **** burger for it, both in terms of having a stinker of an event and injuries.

 

was ali on thyroid meds by then?

 

A grotesque and purposeless circus act....

 

I saw the fight on youtube a while back. It's mostly boring, but Inoki does get in kicks to Ali's legs, which were swollen and iced up in the later rounds.

The event was declared a draw, but from a damage perspective of blows landed, Inoki was the better.

Of Course, Inoki spent much of the match on his back, kicking at Ali, who according to the rules wasn't allowed to jab, though he did from time to time.

The funny part of the fight was Ali lifting himself up on the ropes to avoid punishment to his lower body.

The fight was a ripoff and an embarrassment to boxing, but then again most of the time a boxer fights an MMA guy, he's going to lose.

Some highlights

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ZQAVoGhaw[/url]

 

Yes. Ali's legs took a lot of kicks that night. As for whether Muhammad was affected long term by this factor ? Debatable. He was definitely on the slide after Manilla and it was most obvious in the third Norton fight as Ali had trained pretty hard for it unlike the Jimmy Young bout where his sluggishness could be attributed to being out of shape.

 

Ali's life was never in danger from getting kicked in the legs. If someone wrote a book claiming that they are just trying to sell a book.

Ali was fighting in exhibitions within a week or two. And he defended his title against his number-one contender three months later.

He was basically fine after that joke of a bout. He certainly never came close to death.

 

been reading more about it and this seems to be the truth, ali/his team squashed any plans to work it (planned spots and a fixed ending so both guys look good) early on, then *****ed out on a real fight and the customers got screwed.

and yeah, having a potentially life threatening issue is not the same as actually nearly dying.

p.s. i was never into wrestling but been watching it and learning stuff for a few months, that is a ****ing crazy world, boxing seems gentlemanly and caring in comparison.

 

I was a fan of wrestling when I was a kid in the 1970s and I kind of quit watching it in the 1980s.

One of the wildest stories I've come across was when wrestler Frank "Bruiser" Brody (also known as King Kong Brody) was stabbed to death in the shower by another wrestler who carried a knife in a towel with him in the shower and stabbed Brody several times in the stomach ... and then grabbed him by the hair and stabbed him in the chest. Other wrestlers thought they were going in to discuss how they were going to end their match (agree on who would win).

It happened in Puerto Rico, which was a place at the time (before the WWE sort of took everything over) where it was considered a dangerous place to wrestle. The match took place at a baseball park. And many wrestlers saw what happened and did nothing while Brody was bleeding out.

I'd watched Brody wrestle D!ck The Bruiser in the 1970s. I was doing a search not long ago about some of those wrestlers I'd seen and was shocked to learn Brody was not only dead but that he'd been murdered and the wrestler (Jose Gonzalez) who killed him got away with it.

Here's some of what I found. Even if you don't know the players, it's pretty wild stuff.

Best written first-hand account. (Colon is the promoter who Manny Fernandez - a couple links down - says owed Brody $40,000 and didn't want to pay him. According to this account, Colon was sitting next to the wrestler who stabbed Brody when Brody arrived at the ballpark and entered the locker room.)
[url]http://www.solie.org/articles/brodeath.html[/url]

Wrestler Tony Atlas on Bruiser Brody's death (Atlas was there) Audio:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78eudgH6l74[/url]

Wrestler Honky Tonk Man on how wild Puerto Rico was and on Brody's death
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lIrUQ7Clws[/url]

Another wrestler's account who was there. (A little hard to understand.)
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2u4ThT_tu8[/url]

Wrestler Manny Fernandez on Brody's murder (said they didn't want to pay Brody, who was a freelance wrestler, $40,000 they owed him)
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCSN4W4OMJs[/url]

Wrestler Superstar Billy Graham on the murder
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lygZMtoKaXk[/url]

Wrestler Ric Flair on Brody and the wrestling business (and all the freelance wrestlers) in the 1980s (starts about the 3 minute mark). He also talks about how Brody and Harley Race (the promoter/wrestler) didn't get along. Brody didn't get along with any promoters. And about being a star wrestler in Japan, which goes back to Inoki not wanting to lose to Ali.
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_L005iWKNY[/url]

More from wrestler Ric Flair on Bruiser Brody's murder (audio) - claims he never saw anything to this day and is hesitant to talk about it (because no one went to jail). Keeps changing the subject when it comes up. They only talk about it at the start of the video (first two minutes or so). The second half talks about other wrestlers.

Obviously, Flair was one of the wrestlers who didn't help when Brody was dying. (One of the guys who put his head down and just laced up his shoes, according to Tony Atlas). He seems to have guilt about it now, because he just changes the subject when it comes up to how much they got along. When he's asked what he was thinking at the time, all he said was he had to get ready to wrestle for an hour that night. Which seems to blow the mind of Steve Austin, the wrestler interviewing him.:
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL54mTEMtZg[/url]

This is actually footage of Brody fighting the wrestler who killed him - shortly before Brody's death. (Typically 80s pulling their punches wrestling.) But it kind of gives you the idea of the ballparks and odd places they wrestled in.
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqGqTQ6TzB4[/url]

Even if you don't know who these guys are ... it's an interesting story.

I'm surprised nobody has really written a book about his murder and the sport during that era. It's really fascinating. Very dangerous, too. The stories of those old wrestlers are great.

 

damn, i watched him vs terry funk and the comments said he was murdered, didn't know it was in that circimstance tho. i'll watch those nterviews later.

for everyone disappointed by inoki v ali, this is much more fun and violent.
[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lXAGZtMxU8[/url]

 

Speaking of Ali-Inoki, Inoki also "fought" Karl Mildenberger ... which is pretty peculiar.

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bru6BvbvmSU[/url]

 

From what I recall watching this fight not too long ago and listening to the commentators, it was suppose to be largely for entertainment purposes.

It wasn't designed to an actual real fight, same as when Andre the Giant fought Wepner. Wepner was some ****ed off when the Giant threw him over the top of the ring..he wanted to fight him for real when he got back in, which would have been insane.