I was just rewatching Lyoto Machida's MMA debut at NJPW against Kengo Watanabe. After Machida wins the fight - he walks over to Inoki who gets up and pimp slaps Lyoto - not once - but twice. Then Inoki pats him on the shoulder and nods his head. It was really funny. I was curious as to the reasoning behind it all. Does anyone know about Inoki and Machida's backstory?
i asked this question a while ago and no one could tell me. someone mentioned that inoki was pissed because machida had just signed with a rival organisation or something. it all seems very dodgy.. My take is that inoki has a history of fight fixing and i get the impression that machida was told to lose. when he didnt inoki gave him one in the face for his "disrespect" If you watch closely youll see this look on inokis face like hes saying to machida "you know what that was for boy" thats just a guess though.
i googled it it says that was the Antonio Inoki “Toukon Slap” known as“Fighting Spirit Slap"
It's just Inoki being Inoki. He does this to put himself over. I have seen New Japan shows before where he has got like 100 hundred fans to come to the ring and get slapped. Machida would of known it was going to happen.
