By Joe Koizumi
Having competed with Muhammad Ali in a mixed exhibition in 1976, Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki passed away today (Saturday) here in Tokyo, Japan. Inoki, 79, was a well-known personality thanks to his versatile activities in being not only a professional wrestler but also a flamboyant politician, an up-and-down businessman or a celebrity well-known nationwide. Rest in peace.
Rest In Peace!
Sorry to hear about Inoki passing away. I will never forget his match with Ali. He was a dangerous opponent for Ali, who looked ridiculous hopping around while holding onto the ropes to keep from being taken down by Inoki. Inoki was a good sport about it all. Rest easy, Mr Inoki.
Great wrestler and athlete. Rest in peace and may God comfort his family and loved ones…
A wrestling legend and one of the Mount Rushmore of Japanese Puroresu(Pro wrestling). Sparred with Ali in one of the first inter-dicipline crossover fights. He whooped ass for real on more than one occasion during matches. One hell of a run.
Rest In Peace.
This is fightnews.com. wrestling is fake entertainment. No need to report on this. An old Ali whooped his a**!
I’m sorry to hear about that.
Wrestling insiders say that Inoki would have beat Clay or Ali, whatever he was calling himself at the time, had the fight been a legit wrestlerr-boxer “shoot” as it was billed, but it wasn’t. What happened was the black muslims made a deal with the Japanese Yakuza (mafia), and they then told Inoki they want him on the floor. Inoki interpreted it his own way and he stayed on the floor and kicked Ali and gave him permanent leg damage.
The same night, but at a different location, MSG (telecast to the arena) was another wrestler-boxer fight, Andre the Giant vs. Chuck Wepner. It was an ugly affair. Andre was not a nice person. He tried to seriously hurt, if not kill, Wepner. I knew Wepner indirectly.
That should have read:
“Wrestling insiders say that Inoki would have beat Clay or Ali in seconds …”
Inoki was good.
In June of 1976 Ali had 4 wrestling events culminating in his Inoki bout. Gorilla Monsoon airplane spun Ali, Kenny Jay got “stopped” dramatically and Ali decisioned Buddy Wolff. All weird with plenty of video evidence on YouTube.
The others appear to have been just wrestling gags (I just watched the Gorilla Monsoon vs Ali show on utube), but Inoki-Ali and Wepner-Andre the Giant were billed as “shoots”, real wrestler vs boxer fights. As i mentioned above the Inoki one was a travesty, but the Wepner one seemed to be all too real in a very ugly cheating way.