Who should have been boxing's representative against Inoki in 1976?

The actual Ali/Inoki fight ended up a terrible mess because Ali imposed rules that prevented Inoki from doing anything. Probably because Ali realized he'd lose under fair rules that allowed Inoki to grapple.

But maybe Ali wasn't the best guy to send against Inoki.

Which leads me to the question of this thread:

Whom would you have sent in 1976 as the boxer to fight Inoki? Out of the actual active boxers of the time, would have the best shot at defending boxing's honor against Inoki under fair rules that permitted grappling?

 

No one, that fight was a load of BS. Ali had severe bold clots in his legs from Inoki kicking him for 15 rounds.

 

George Foreman.

 

Ali didn't intend for it to be that way, Inoki just saw a flaw in the rules and took maximum advantage of it which made it an absolute **** show. Sonny wasn't around when it happened but I am I the only one interested in seeing Liston in MMA?

 

Roberto Duran!
He'd have clouted him right in the nuts. Game over.

 

My understanding is that Ali didn't allow grappling at all, which basically left Inoki with no options to win. (Except for the loophole he found and exploited.)

 

Maybe a roughouse type of guy like Chuck Wepner.


Muhammad took a hell of a risk with his health in that exhibition. Biggest mistake of his boxing career that did n't have Larry Holmes' or Trevor Berbick's name on it. If he had n't have taken part in that farce maybe he'd have looked better against Ken Norton a few months later.

 

Oscar Bonavena or Carlos Monzon.

 

I assume the Wepner reference was a joke, since Chuck did “fight” Inoki. Didn’t last long, as I recall.

 

I doubt Foreman was stopping a takedown

 

Duran was way too small for Inoki

 

Realistically no one, very few boxers have had kickboxing/Wrestling/submission backgrounds and especially back then to have stopped Inoki from taking them down and submitting them or kicking their legs into submission. Inoki wasn't even the best Japanese shooter back then either, his bodyguard Yoshiaki Fujiwara who looked about as average as average gets was the real deal who learned the most when it came to Catch Wrestling/submissions from Karl Gotch. Back in the day when some Japanese Martial Artists wanted to fight Inoki for real they would go to the New Japan Dojo to challenge him but first they had to get though Fujiwara, they never did.

 

There were no take downs in that fight, they were not allowed thatś why Inoki laid down and kicked Aliś legs round after round. To avoid a take down you need a punch George had that and the strength to match, I definitely give him a shot.

 

It was near the end and easy to miss, but the original post specifies it's under fair rules that permit grappling.

 

I thought of crazy Ringo also but technically he had only recently passed on prior to the Inoki bout - but it’s fantasy anyway so we can give Oscar a day pass from up above.

Tbh, I have never seen Inoki strut his stuff in his chosen combat sport. How good was he?