It was June 25, 1976 in the United States, and June 26 in Tokyo when Muhammad Ali fought Antonio Inoki for 15 rounds in a boring bout. Considering that Inoki was a professional wrestler you would think that people would have figured out that it was fake. That has not been the case, as 42 years later the bout is still talked about as if it were the real deal.
First let's deal with the supposed blood clots that Ali received. I just got a CompuBox's book on Ali, and while it's a great book, it seems like they believe that Ali really did suffer blood clots. It has been told so many times that Ali suffered blood clots. Ferdie Pacheco talked about it a whole lot. It has even been suggested that Ali's legs were never the same after the blood clots. Through all of those years what they didn't know about was the internet, and how it was going to make information readily available. Cyberboxigzone.com, has, on Ali's record, the match with Inoki, and then him participating in two exhibition bouts in Seoul Korea two days after the fight. This article here https://www.stripes.com/news/ali-mixes-it-up-with-gis-in-korea-1.48212 show an article from the Associated Press that shows that Ali had the exhibition, and other activities in Seoul happening the day after. The confusion could comes from the difference between what date the Inoki fight happened in terms of U.S. time, and the date it was in Japan. Ali had a busy day in Seoul. He participated in a parade, then he visited U.S. soldiers stationed there, and it was there that he boxed those short exhibition bouts, and watched a martial arts demonstration. This is pretty good activity for a guy who suffered blood clots the day before. The article also talks about Ali's other activities while on South Korea.
Ali's opponent in that match, Antonio Inoki, seems to me to have been obsessed with convincing even skeptics that the wrestling he took part in was real. He went as far as to stage several exhibition matches against fighters from other disciplines. Some consider these Mixed Martial Arts matches. All indications that I have gotten are that those bouts were as fake as his wrestling matches. I watched his match with Willie Williams, and it certainly wasn't real. The thing is that people tend to accept those bouts as fake. It's the Ali one that was somehow the real one. This is the same Inoki that took part in a work with the Great Antonio that still to this day has people convinced it was a shoot. Grantland even an article about it. It was some small series of articles they had about when wrestling gets real. The basic story is that Inoki thought that the Great Antonio was being stiff with him so he preceded to stop acting, and really beat the shit out of him. There are several problems with this though. The Great Antonio doesn't behave like a guy who is really being beaten up. He doesn't fight back, he doesn't bail out of the ring. He just stays there are lets Inoki keep kicking him. While lying on the mat he at times put his hand up to his forehead, and then removes it in time for Inoki to kick him again. Then in what should be the clincher, after he starts bleeding he is quickly shown on camera dropping what appears to be a blade outside of the ring. The blood came from him blading himself on the forehead, and not from those kicks.
Now back to Ali vs Inoki. The bout is boring as fuck. Inoki lays on his back throwing kicks, and Ali for the most part does nothing but taunt him. I haven't watched all 15 rounds, but it's been said that Ali threw 6 punches. Why would the boxer throw just 6 punches. There were plenty times when Inoki was standing up, and Ali wouldn't even throw a jab at him. Inoki's kicks are thrown with less force than modern WWE wrestlers throw their martial arts style kicks.
