Martial Arts on Muhammad Ali

Millionaire

Gentlemen check this out, you may find this of interest.
This guy Joe Lewis was a student of bruce lees also.


DW Forum - Can you tell the forum what exactly happened the time you demonstrated Martial Arts on Muhammad Ali?

Joe Lewis - Muhammad Ali was getting ready to fight the wrestler, Inoki, from Japan. He was at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles doing a press conference in the boxing ring. I simply asked him what he would do if a wrestler did a fake punch at his head and shot for his leg to take him to the ground. He told me to step in the ring and demonstrate. The press pushed me between the ropes, and I found myself face to face with Ali. We were both in street clothes, and he had his hands up shuffling side to side using lateral footwork movements against me. I did a shoulder fake, which he reacted to, and shot for his leg. The instance I hooked his leg, I froze. I was too embarrassed to dump him on his butt. He bent forward and wrapped his arms around my waist, and I heard everybody in the place laugh. I picked him up, did a fireman’s carry takedown, dumping him on his back, and pinned him on the mat. Everybody grabbed me and pulled me off quickly. I jumped up, telling everybody we were just playing. Ali stood up next to me and put his arm around my shoulder. At the time, I was only about 180 pounds because I was pursuing acting not fighting, and my weight was really down. Ali’s first comment to me was, “You lifted weights when you were younger, didn’t you?” I’m sure he could tell I was extremely strong and hard as a brick. Then we did the same movement again, and I pinned him again a second time in a row. That’s when he showed me how he was going to fight Inoki with his back constantly against the ropes.

dlofnep

Ali v Inoki = Most boring MMA fight of all time.

RedRaven

dlofnep wrote:

Ali v Inoki = Most boring MMA fight of all time.

What happened??!!

Ph3n0m

Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali fought to a 15 round draw in Tokyo, Japan. The rules of the match stated that Inoki could not use any suplexes, throws or submission moves. Both men would wear gloves, although Inoki took his off during the fight. Due to a misunderstanding about the finish of the bout just prior to it taking place, neither man knew what the other was going to do in the ring. The entire match ended up consisting of Inoki lying on his back (so Ali could not knock him out) and kicking at Ali's legs, while Ali would back away from the kicks. The fight, which was seen in the U.S. on closed circuit television, has been criticized as being one of the most boring matches of all time. However, to this day, a large part of Inoki's legend in Japan is based on the fact that he "went the distance" with Ali.


credit: http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=11179&p=1


or

This match was the one where Ali fought a pro-wrestler in what was known as one of the first televised mixed martial arts events (sort of). To this day in the MMA world, it is known as a legendary fight, and nobody here realizes the genius tactics of Inoki.

Ali thought he was going to have it easy against some stupid Japanese Pro-Wrestler. Ali was familiar with Pro Wrestling at the time as he based his entire charisma off Georgous George, and he knew it wasn't real. (Not everyone did at the time)

Ali scouted Inoki a few days before the fight, and got scared as hell when he saw the grappling that Inoki was doing. He demanded a change to the rules.

1. Since Inoki wore no gloves, he was not permitted to use any closed fist punches, or any strikes to the head.

2. Inoki was not allowed to grapple with Ali or take him down to the ground.

The rules were heavily stacked in Ali's favor, and it was going to take one hell of a gameplan for Inoki to defeat the worlds greatest fighter. Throughout the fight Inoki used diving leg kicks to attack Ali's mobility and possibly leave his legs so weak that he could not stand or gain enough ground to throw a punch. This strategy left Ali unable to attack him with crisp punches as he was always wear of Inoki dropping with another leg kick. The bout was scored a draw by all three judges and this was in spite of Inoki losing one point late in the fight for inactivity.

The crowd booed non-stop and were furious with the lackluster fight they were watching. Journalists did nothing but trash the fight and the western world only heard of "Ali fighting some Japanese Martial Artist who fought like a little girl and was running the whole match". But days later when the specific rules for the match were revealed to the public, and people became aware of the great strategy that Inoki used to battle Ali, he became a legend in Japan. And to this day stadiums will roar louder for him than for any current fighter.

Ali continued his great boxing career and went down as arguably the greatest of all time. After his retirement his managers revealed that a large part of it was due to Inoki's leg kicks on Ali, and that he had never been the same since.

Truly one of the most important fights in the history of man to man combat. Not the most exciting, but so much was at stake, and so much came out of it. Currently Inoki and Ali are good friends and visit each other yearly at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye events where Ali is always a guest of honor. Ali Gave Inoki his "Bom-Ba-Ye" theme song in tribute to his fighting spirit.

Credit: http://forums.dragid.com/archive/index.php/t-22618

RedRaven

Ph3n0m wrote:

Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali fought to a 15 round draw in Tokyo, Japan. The rules of the match stated that Inoki could not use any suplexes, throws or submission moves. Both men would wear gloves, although Inoki took his off during the fight. Due to a misunderstanding about the finish of the bout just prior to it taking place, neither man knew what the other was going to do in the ring. The entire match ended up consisting of Inoki lying on his back (so Ali could not knock him out) and kicking at Ali's legs, while Ali would back away from the kicks. The fight, which was seen in the U.S. on closed circuit television, has been criticized as being one of the most boring matches of all time. However, to this day, a large part of Inoki's legend in Japan is based on the fact that he "went the distance" with Ali.


credit: http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=11179&p=1


or

This match was the one where Ali fought a pro-wrestler in what was known as one of the first televised mixed martial arts events (sort of). To this day in the MMA world, it is known as a legendary fight, and nobody here realizes the genius tactics of Inoki.

Ali thought he was going to have it easy against some stupid Japanese Pro-Wrestler. Ali was familiar with Pro Wrestling at the time as he based his entire charisma off Georgous George, and he knew it wasn't real. (Not everyone did at the time)

Ali scouted Inoki a few days before the fight, and got scared as hell when he saw the grappling that Inoki was doing. He demanded a change to the rules.

1. Since Inoki wore no gloves, he was not permitted to use any closed fist punches, or any strikes to the head.

2. Inoki was not allowed to grapple with Ali or take him down to the ground.

The rules were heavily stacked in Ali's favor, and it was going to take one hell of a gameplan for Inoki to defeat the worlds greatest fighter. Throughout the fight Inoki used diving leg kicks to attack Ali's mobility and possibly leave his legs so weak that he could not stand or gain enough ground to throw a punch. This strategy left Ali unable to attack him with crisp punches as he was always wear of Inoki dropping with another leg kick. The bout was scored a draw by all three judges and this was in spite of Inoki losing one point late in the fight for inactivity.

The crowd booed non-stop and were furious with the lackluster fight they were watching. Journalists did nothing but trash the fight and the western world only heard of "Ali fighting some Japanese Martial Artist who fought like a little girl and was running the whole match". But days later when the specific rules for the match were revealed to the public, and people became aware of the great strategy that Inoki used to battle Ali, he became a legend in Japan. And to this day stadiums will roar louder for him than for any current fighter.

Ali continued his great boxing career and went down as arguably the greatest of all time. After his retirement his managers revealed that a large part of it was due to Inoki's leg kicks on Ali, and that he had never been the same since.

Truly one of the most important fights in the history of man to man combat. Not the most exciting, but so much was at stake, and so much came out of it. Currently Inoki and Ali are good friends and visit each other yearly at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye events where Ali is always a guest of honor. Ali Gave Inoki his "Bom-Ba-Ye" theme song in tribute to his fighting spirit.

Credit: http://forums.dragid.com/archive/index.php/t-22618

Thanks for that!!!