The Ali–Inoki Fight at 50

The Ali–Inoki Fight at 50 Part 3

“The general consensus was that it was crazy,” sportswriter Josh Gross recounted in Ali vs. Inoki: The Forgotten Fight That Inspired Mixed Martial Arts and Launched Sports Entertainment (2016). “Everyone from trainer Angelo Dundee to doctor Ferdie Pacheco to promoter Bob Arum thought it was stupid. . . . Ali did what he wanted.”
The champ’s team harbored visions of broken limbs; sparring over the rules continued practically up to the opening bell. Ultimately Ali would wear standard four-ounce gloves while Inoki went bare-knuckle. Drop kicks, karate chops, throat punches, and hitting on the mat were barred; leg pulls and other maneuvers to drop an opponent were allowed, as were kicks delivered from, or near, the canvas.
That was Inoki’s plan. “I’m preparing,” he said through an interpreter, “not to get hit.” He rebuffed offers of sparring partners. “Ali has speed and reach,” he said; to spar with any other heavyweight — Lesser Mortals lacking Ali’s singular conglomeration of gifts — would hurt more than help.
Ali’s cornermen recognized that their man needed exposure to “rasslers.” An exhibition was arranged for Chicago’s International Amphitheatre on June 10, 1976. Unmentioned in major biographies of Ali, this wild event pitted the Greatest against two beefy no-names: Kenny Jay, a 225-pounder, and Buddy Wolff, who weighed 260 pounds — 40 pounds heavier than Ali.
It should have been a warning. The Associated Press reported that Jay slammed the champ to the ropes. Ali pounded Jay’s face and torso, which soon were “blotched in red,” then unloaded a right that knocked the brute “senseless.” Two policemen and Dick the Bruiser, Jay’s cornerman, helped him from the ring.
Wolff, next up, lunged at the champ, “picking Ali up like a bag of potatoes and smashing him to the canvas . . . twice dropping the champ over his knee in what is known as the ‘back-breaker.’” Referee Verne Gagne prepared, repeatedly, to count Ali out. “But Ali seemed indomitable,” the AP reported, “always managing to crawl to the ropes on his belly and avoid a pin.”
Crawling on his belly — the Greatest?
Equally shocking was the sight of Ali employing his own rasslin’ moves, “scissoring Wolff around the neck with his legs, flipping him over his head.”
“Ali Turns Wrestlers into Bloody Pulps,” ran one headline — but it hardly told the story.

 

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