#Seiji Sakaguchi

[mostbelovednjpwtournament]

Most Beloved NJPW Wrestler Tournament

[scarskelly]

Losing my shit at this picture I found of Seiji and Yukio Sakaguchi.

[memecucker]

A really carny thing the WWWF used to do is when they wanted to debut a new belt and have it immediately belong to someone they would just make up a fake event in South America and say this guy won it

Like the “Intercontinental” is called that bc when the WWF seceded from the NWA they had a “North American” championship which at the time was held by Seiji Sakaguchi from New Japan which at the time was an NWA member so rather than strip the championship they made up a non-existent tournament in South America where the North American belt and a non-existent “South American championship” were both on the line and said Pat Patterson won it and decided to fuse them into an “Intercontinental” championship

That’s made even funnier bc the WWWF World Championship was made up using the same trick more or less bc the first time the Fed seceded from the NWA was a brief period in the early 60s and when they did that they claimed Nature Boy Buddy Rodgers won it at a fictitious tournament in Rio de Janeiro bc they wanted him to immediately be their champion but couldn’t just hand it over since that didn’t look as good

[motorsportverso]

Resultados do Super GT Okayama

GT500

1-36-Sho Tsuboi\Kenta Yamashita-Toyota GR Supra GT500-au Tom's -82 Laps

2-39-Yuki Sekiguchi\Yuichi Nakayama-Toyota GR Supra GT500-Denso Kebelco Sard

3-100-Naoki Yamamoto\Tadasuki Makino-Honda Civic Type R GT500-Stanley

4-38-Hiroaki Ishiura\Toshiki Oky-Toyota GR Supra GT500-Keeper Cerumo

5-23-Katsumassa Chiyo\Ronnie Quintarelli-Nissan Z GT500-Motul Autech Z

6-3-Mitsunori Takaboshi\Atsushi Miyake-Nissan Z GT500-Niterra Motul Z

7-37-Ukyo Sashara\Giuliano Alesi-Toyota GR Supra GT500-au Tom's

8-8-Tamoki Nojiri\Nobuharu Matsushita-Honda Civic Type R GT500-ARTA Mugen

9-16-Hiroki Otsu\Ren Sato-Honda Civic Type R GT500-ARTA Mugen

10-64-Takuya Izawa\Riki Okusa-Honda Civic Type R GT500-Modulo +1 Lap

GT300

1-2-Yuui Tsutsumi\Hibini Taira-Toyota GR86 GT300-Muta Racing-77 Laps

2-65-Naoya Gamou\Takura Shinohara-Mercedes-AMG GT3-LEON PYRAMID AMG

3-7-Seiji Aara\Niklas Krutten-BMW M4 GT3-BMW Team Studie

4-52-Hiroki Yoshida\Seita Nonaka-Toyota GR Supra GT300-Green Brave

5-31-Kazuto Kotaka\Jin Nakamura-Lexus LC 500 h-APR- +1 Lap

6-96-Morio Nitta\Shinichi Takagi-Lexus RC F GT3-K-tunes +1 Lap

7-87-Kosuke Matsuura\Natsu Sakaguchi-Lamborghini Huracan GT3-Metalive +1 Lap

8-88-Takashi Kogure\Yuya Motojima-Lamborghini Huracan GT3-JLOC +1 Lap

9-4-Nobutero Taniguchi\Tatsuya Kataoka-Mercedes AMG GT3-GOODSMILE Hatsune +1 Lap

10-6-Yoshiaki Katayama\Roberto Hermi-Ferrari 296 GT3-Uni Robo Bluegrass +1 Lap

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[josiahthegreat]

Crown technique - from father to son

#SeijiSakaguchi #YukioSakaguchi #NJPW #DDT #DDTPro

[vintageprofessionalwrestling]

Seiji Sakaguchi VS Chris  Markoff

[gdwessel]

New Japan Road Night 2 - 2/21/2010; Manabu Nakanishi Retirement Show - 2/22/2020

Well, toldy’all I wouldn’t be around yesterday. During which time, another New Japan Road show took place, live on NJPWWorld, featuring two title matches.

- 2/21/2020, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Tiger Mask IV & Gabriel Kidd d. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura (Tiger > Uemura, Double Armbar, 8:23)

Juice Robinson, David Finlay Jr., SHO [CHAOS] & YOH [CHAOS] d. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] (Finlay > Kanemaru, Acid Drop, 10:27)

Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] d. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare (YOSHI-HASHI > Honma, Butterfly Lock, 11:49)

Manabu Nakanishi Final In Korakuen Hall III: Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata d. Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club] (Nakanishi > Gedo, Argentine Backbreaker, 12:42)

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables] d. Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (HIromu > Romero, Timebomb, 12:24)

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: EVIL, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] © d. Toru Yano [CHAOS], Colt Cabana [FREE] & Ryusuke Taguchi (BUSHI > Taguchi, Bushiroll, 14:14) - EVIL/Shingo/BUSHI succeed their 2nd defense

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi d. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © (Tanahashi > Tonga, High Fly Flow, 20:10) - GOD fail their 1st defense - Golden Aces are the 86th champions

It’s mid-February, and we’ve already had three different IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champion teams, and two brand-new teams at that. While the hot potato-ing of the belts is a little worrisome, the new teams being involved is not, and is actually making the division interesting for the first time in a long time. This is Tanahashi’s 3rd reign as tag champion; he had two others with different partners, one with Yutaka Yoshie, the other with Shinsuke Nakamura. For Ibushi, this is his first Heavyweight tag reign, however he & Kenny Omega were once junior tag champions as the Golden Lovers way back when. The new champions were then attacked by another recent pairing, Dangerous Tekkers, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. So there’s another fresh matchup. And then there’s the prospective match with FinJuice looming...

BUSHI gets another victory in the 6-man title match, therefore Shingo remains a Two-Belter. In other Two-Belts news, Tetsuya Naito was attacked post-match by Hiromu, in build to their match at the Anniversary show on 3/3/2020. Nakanishi gets an actual win in his third farewell match, submitting Gedo, leading into today...

...in which we say farewell to Nakanishi, after being a pro wrestler for 27 years, and indeed a wrestler for longer at the Olympic level. But it was a pretty consistent 27 years, being pretty popular with the NJPW fans, even after his wrestling had been declining since his spinal injury in 2011. A 1-time IWGP Heavyweight champion, 3-time IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team champion (with Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Takao Omori), winner of the 1999 G1 Climax, and the 1995 Young Lion Cup... he wasn’t the most decorated wrestler in NJPW, but he was appreciated, and rewarded. I assume he will still be involved in the dojo, even if he is not actively wrestling at this point. He was also remembered for his excursion in WCW as Kurasawa, from 1995-96, where he had a pretty infamous feud with Road Warrior Hawk that included Nakanishi legit accidentally breaking Hawk’s arm in an armbar, as well as a famous near-win over Macho Man Randy Savage on Monday Nitro. His presence will be missed in the NJPW ring. As will his regular Monster Morning breakfasts.

Manabu Nakanishi Retirement Show - 2/22/2020, Tokyo Kokrakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Tiger Mask IV & Gabriel Kidd d. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura (Tiger > Uemura, Tiger Suplex Hold, 7:21)

Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS], Colt Cabana [FREE], Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (Taichi > Romero, Seiteijujiryo, 9:51)

SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Toa Henare, SHO [CHAOS] & YOH [CHAOS] (Hiromu > YOH, LAT, 10:49)

Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] d. Juice Robinson, David Finlay Jr., Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma (White > Honma, Blade Runner, 9:30)

Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay [CHAOS] (Naito > YOSHI-HASHI, Destino, 12:13)

Manabu Nakanishi Final In Korakuen Hall IV: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi & Hirooki Goto [CHAOS] d. Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata (Tanahashi > Nakanishi, High Fly Flow, 18:03)

Manabu Nakanishi Retirement Ceremony

The result reads Tanahashi got the win, however in reality, prior to the pin, Goto hit Nakanishi with GTR, Ibushi with Kamigoye and Okada with Rainmaker, before Tanahashi hit High Fly Flow for the win to see out Nakanishi’s career. During the retirement ceremony, Nakanishi was met by Riki Choshu and Hiroshi Hase (busy week for those two), Seiji Sakaguchi and Tatsumi Fujinami, as well as NJPW President Harold Meij and Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi. Nakanishi declared he would always be a wrestler. And with that, his in-ring career ends.

The next show is on Wednesday from Okinawa, which sadly will not be on NJPWWorld. Still no word on the 48th Anniversary show lineup bar the match we know about, nor the New Japan Cup lineups. We’ll have those soon as we know them.

- 2/26/2020, Okinawa Prefectural Budokan

Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling Exhibition Match: Gurukun Mask & Ultra Soki v. Gosamaru & Hejor Kidman

Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask IV v. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura

SHO & YOH [CHAOS] v. Taiji Ishimori & Gedo [Bullet Club]

Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma v. Yujiro Takahashi & Jado [Bullet Club]

Juice Robinson & Gabriel Kidd v. Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto [CHAOS]

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima v. Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Toa Henare & Ryusuke Taguchi v. EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables]

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay [CHAOS] v. Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

Strong Style Story Podcast Episode 63 on Pro Wrestling Only

[shitloadsofwrestling]

NWA United National Heavyweight Championship The Sheik Vs. Seiji Sakaguchi (Champion) All Japan Pro Wrestling [September 6th, 1972]

The NWA United National Championship was born in St. Louis, Missouri as part of the St. Louis territory. It eventually migrated to Los Angeles where in February of 1972, Seiji Sakaguchi defeated King Krow and traveled to Japan with the title in tow. It was there that it became part of the AJPW lineage, where Sakaguchi would defend the title against all comers. On a quest to return the title to the United States, Michigan wrestling legend The Sheik traveled to AJPW to challenge the champion for the gold, presenting an unusual challenge that Sakaguchi may not have been prepared for, try as he may. While The Sheik was successful in regaining the gold for the United States, his reign as champion was less successful as Sakaguchi regained the championship in a rematch the following day.

[toysinthepackage]

Seiji Sakaguchi JWA wrestling figure 1969

[mostbelovednjpwtournament]

Most Beloved NJPW Wrestler Tournament

[scarskelly]

loving your ddt presentations!! I am going to showing them to all my friends to make them like ddt too. I had a question!!

Yukio Sakaguchi, scary sexy beautiful man of all time who I love, I've gotten off track.

BUT, I'm so curious about his tattoos! It's so rare in general, but especially given his age and just how prominent they are (especially the back tattoo)

Idk whether it's just him trying to be controversial or stand out from all the other wrestlers (since he has spoken about his height being a hindrance is typical wrestling spaces). Do you know of any context or stories behind them?

Thanks so much for the support! Questions are always welcome :D

Took me a bit to respond as I wanted to look up if he had talked about this before, which he has! In particular I had a look at this article and in a couple other places.

From what I'm able to gather, Sakaguchi started getting tattoos at around 20. At this point it seems he had been left pretty bummed about not being able to wrestle, and to basically begin the process of giving up his pro wrestling dream he started getting tattoos. After getting his first tattoo (which I believe was one of his arm ones, easy to cover up) he assumed he'd never get to step into a wrestling ring due to the taboo surrounding them.

Then, he got into karate and got his first bit of back ink, 闘魂 (Tokon) which is fighting spirit. He then added an unsheathed sword when he started professionally fighting and armour to protect himself. He was criticised for his tattoos during this time and worried that it would have a negative impact on his father and brother. His brother didn't really care. His father...wasn't the biggest fan at first to say the least (an inappropriate physical punishment was involved, that I will not divulge on) but nowadays Seiji also doesn't really care.

Now Sakaguchi views his tattoos as one of his greatest assets, something that helps him stand out amongst the crowd and make an impression. Almost like his business card! I wasn't too sure where to mention this but Sakaguchi also likes to go get tattoos in the places he travels to for shows, from New York to Singapore. I guess it's a permanent souvenir of sorts.

[kingsankkofa]

Seiji Sakaguchi

[good7luck]

Matoba(22) vs(?) Dazai(18)

I’m so sorry but I had to XD

[leenaevilin]

[Update] 舞台「魔法使いの約束」第3章 (butai mahoutsukai no yakusoku dai 3 shou)

the  show will be running from April 23rd, 2022 to May 8th, 2022 (Tokyo) @ 天王洲 銀河劇場 (The Galaxy Theatre) May 13th, 2022 to May 15th, 2022 (Aichi) @ アイプラザ豊橋 (Ai Plaza Toyohashi) May 20th, 2022 to May 22nd, 2022 (Kyoto) @ 京都劇場 (Kyoto Gekijou)

Cast:

Central Country

Kiyama Haruki as Oz (オズ)

Kitagawa Naoya as Arthur (アーサー)

Iwaki Naoya as Cain (カイン)

Shinya Seiji as Riquet (リケ)

Northern Country

Okuda Yumeto as Snow (スノウ)

Taguchi Tsukasa as White (ホワイト)

Ayukawa Taiyou as Mithra (ミスラ)

Kaminaga Keisuke as Owen (オーエン)

Nakamura Tarou as Bradley (ブラッドリー)

Eastern Country

Yata Yuusuke as Faust (ファウスト)

Tamura Shougo as Shino (シノ)

Katou Daigo as Heathcliff (ヒースクリフ)

Tsubokura Kousei as Nero (ネロ)

Western Country

Yamada James Takeshi as Shylock (シャイロック)

Hashimoto Taito as Murr (ムル)

Minaki Ibu as Chloe (クロエ)

Morita Touya as Rustica (ラスティカ)

Southern Country

Wagou Shinichi as Figaro (フィガロ)

Oomi Shouichirou as Rutile (ルチル)

Shirakashi Judai as Lennox (レノックス)

Imamaki Hikaru as Mitile (ミチル)

Izawa Yuuki as Nova (ノーヴァ)

Shin Masatoshi as Magi Akira [Sage] (真木晶 [賢者])

Hoshino Yuuta as Cock Robin (クックロビン)

Hirakawa Kazuhiro as Drummond (ドラモンド)

Sasaki Takashi as Nicholas (ニコラス)

Kon Takuya as Vincent (ヴィンセント)

Sakaguchi Waku as Jude (ジュード)

homepage nelke twitter natalie

[wrestlingwithhistory]

Muhammad Ali vs Antonio Inoki

For many people, they see the birth of Ultimate Fighting in companies like Pancrase which was founded in 1993 by Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. They embraced the method of mixed martial arts and gave an arena for those who wanted to pit style against style. But some people also reflect back to a time, far before Pancrase, where a meeting of two worlds lit a fire behind those who later went on to created modern Mixed Martial Arts.

In 1975, Muhammad Ali boasted in a meeting with amateur Japanese Wrestling association President Ichiro Hatta “Isn’t there any oriental fighter who will challenge me? I will give him one million dollars if he wins!”. This question hit the headlines of every major newspaper and sports magazine in Japan and was eventually answered by Antonio Inoki, who was the founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling established just 3 years earlier.

Muhammed Ali was coming off the back of a fight with Richard Dunn on 24th May 1976 which he won by knockout and was coming towards the end of his boxing career at the time of the proposed fight having fought in the famous ‘The Thriller in Manila’ on October 1st, 1975. His final fight would be only 6 years later against Trevor Berbick.

Antonio Inoki was, at the time, one of the biggest names in Japanese Professional Wrestling. As well as creating NJPW in 1972, he began his professional wrestling journey as a disciple of Rikidozan at aged 17 as part of the JWA (Japanese Wrestling Alliance). Following the murder of RIkidozan by the Yakuza in 1963, Inoki went on an excursion to the United States in 1964, where he continued training under the legendary Karl Gotch. With Gotch, he learned the Catch style that is now synonymous with the Gotch name. Gotch to this very day is still held in high regard and to many fans and players of Japanese pro wrestling is known as ‘The God of Wrestling’.

Following the return from his excursion in 1966, Inoki working with Tokyo Pro Wrestling and quickly climbed the ranks to become its biggest star, before the company folded in 1967. He then returned to JWA, where he stayed for roughly 4 years, becoming a dominant tag team with his future promotional rival Giant Baba of All Japan Pro Wrestling. Inoki was then fired in 1971 due to JWA officials finding out that Inoki was planning a takeover the company. The following year, New Japan was founded and is one of the biggest wrestling promotions today.

So, in March 1976, an agreement was made between Ali and Inoki to fight at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, scheduled for June 26th, 1976. It is believed that the financial backers of the fight had to part with $6 million to convince Ali to take the exhibition fight and then began the press conferences to build the hype for this one-off spectacle between pugilist and grappler.

Ali, in his usual manner, would make fun of Inoki’s appearance, giving him the nickname ‘The Pelican’ due to his prominent lower jaw and chin. Inoki would then reply via an interpreter “When your fist connects with my chin, take care that your fist is not damaged”. Inoki also went as far as to present Ali with a crutch at a following conference ‘to use after he has been thrown from the ring’.

Ali’s demeanour during this time appeared jovial and not that he was not taking the fight very seriously. This angered Inoki who began to make more threatening statements to try and make Ali realise how serious the exhibition was to him and many around the world. Inoki said in one Conference “I don’t know how seriously Muhammad Ali is taking the fight, but if he doesn’t take it seriously, he could suffer damage. I’m going in there fighting. I may even break his arm”.

These statements from Inoki caused tension within Ali’s team, many of whom were concerned that going ahead with the fight was still a good thing to do. Ali however, continued with his boxing training but also worked with Pro wrestlers in the US to try and gain experience against a wrestler. He worked with The Sheik and sparred with wrestlers Kenny Jay and Buddy Wolf in televised exhibition matches, defeating both.

Due to the growing concerns within Ali’s team, they began creating a list of rules for this unique match-up. The original concept for the match was agreed to be a worked match, common in pro wrestling, but Ali never agreed to determine the winner before the fight had started. It has been speculated by Boxing Journalist Jim Murphy that the original plan for the match was for Ali to accidentally punch the referee and knock him out and while Ali tended to the referee, Inoki would hit him from behind with an enzuiguri (step up kick) or a roundhouse kick to the back of the head. The Referee would then come to and give a ten-count to the incapacitated Ali.

The result was carried out with the intention of both men looking strong, Inoki in front of his countrymen and Ali only losing as he was kicked from behind following the incident with the Referee.

After hearing that he would lose, Ali point blank refused this result and decided that they have a real one-on-one fight.

In the days building up to the fight, Ali’s team attended one of Inoki’s training sessions and were shocked to him using real kicks and grapples on sparring partners. This did little to quell the concerns of his entourage. Inoki has alleged in in interviews that after the training session, his team reported back to him and he asked Inoki “OK, so when do we do the rehearsal?” and Inoki replied “This isn’t an exhibition, it’s a real fight!”

The ever-nervous entourage then scrambled to change the rules once more. Representatives from both sides were called to negotiate the rules of the fight with less than a week before the fight. The list of rules were effectively things that Inoki was not allowed to do to Ali. He was not allowed to use throws, not allowed to grapple or tackle Ali and was not able to land any kicks unless one knee was touching the mat during the kick being performed. They also placed a stipulation that none of the rules were made public before the fight, likely to try and save Ali’s credibility.

Years after the fight, many have disputed the rules that were in place. Referee Gene LeBell denied there were any limitations on grappling or kicking, however Bret Hart, who at the time of the fight was an employee of NJPW, stated that the team working with Ali had said that ‘if Inoki laid a finger on their champ, they would kill him’. This statement was also backed up by former New Japan referee Mr. Takahashi who also said that all of the changes came from Ali’s entourage and not Ali himself.

Many professional fighters became discouraged with how credible the fight could look given all of the imposed restrictions, with notable correspondent John Roderick stating “…what is called by some the world’s first Martial Arts Championship – and others a multi-million-dollar sham”.

Ali arrived in Japan the day of the fight, swarmed by a mass of Japanese journalists all looking to get a soundbite from the Greatest of All Time. They were not disappointed as the ever-humble Ali made his way through the Airport proclaiming “There will be no Pearl harbour! Muhammad Ali has returned! There will be no Pearl Harbour!”. The fight was highly anticipated, by sports fans for the sheer spectacle of seeing 2 sports come together and for professionals and sceptics curious how the fight would be able to function with the level of suspected restrictions that were imposed.

It was estimated that the fight was viewed by 1.4 Billion people worldwide, broadcast to 34 countries. In New York, Vince McMahon Sr. Sold tickets for the fight to watch on a large screen inside Shea Stadium which drew a crowd of 32,897. The Budokan in Tokyo sold out with the most expensive seat selling for 300,000 Yen.

The Fight

Antonio Inoki was the first competitor to make his entrance. He was wearing his now signature purple robe accompanied by Karl Gotch, Olympic Judoka Seiji Sakaguchi, wrestling trainer Kotetsu Yamamoto and pro wrestler Kantaro Hoshino.

Muhammad Ali then followed to the ring, in a red and white robe, followed by his manager Herbert Muhammad, Trainers Angelo Dundee and Wali Muhammad, Cornerman Drew Bundini Brown, Dr. Ferdie Pachecho, pro wrestler ‘Classy’ Freddie Blassie, Taekwondo master Jhoon Goo Rhee and promoter Butch Lewis.

After the first bell rang, the whole arena was taken by surprise as Inoki ran and leapt across the ring towards Ali’s legs. Ali managed to sidestep this attack but Inoki stayed on his back, spending the round sweeping and kicking at Ali’s legs. This was within the confines of the rules and one of Inoki’s knees were always touching the ground at said time. Inoki did stand up momentarily to try and lure in Ali but quickly returned to the mat, throwing kick after kick towards Ali. Ali taunted the wrestler to stand up but Inoki refused taking the fight to Ali’s legs.

This continued on throughout the 2nd and 3rd rounds with Inoki furiously kicking at Ali’s legs with great volume and power. The tactic was seemingly paying off as Ali was not able to throw punches in his normal way meaning that Inoki was able to avoid many of them during the start of the contest. Ali would take to pining himself in the corner of the ring and lifting himself up out of the way of Inoki’s kicks and stamping downwards, which was deemed against the rules and quickly stopped by referee LeBell. A large wound opened up on Ali’s left knee during the third round and the crowd quickly began to boo due to the lack of action going on in the ring. Ali began to taunt Inoki shouting at him “Coward Inoki! Inoki No Fight!” and “One Punch, I want One Punch!”

By round four, Inoki had frustrated both Ali and the crowd within the arena. Ali would continue with shouting at Inoki “Inoki Girl” and “I thought Inoki could Wrestle”. At one point, Inoki got Ali trapped in the corner using his ground kicking technique and wildly hit a flurry of kicks towards Ali’s thighs, Ali trying to avoid by lifting his legs off the canvas while holding onto the ropes again.

In the fifth round, the same pattern continued by Inoki adopting the ground kick strikes to Ali, which paid off somewhat in this round as he managed to knock Ali off his feet with one of the strikes. Ali danced off the stumble in his inimitable fashion while simultaneously avoiding more kicks from Inoki. Despite the frustrations of what Inoki was doing, Ali was nothing less than himself, doing more than enough to keep the crowd entertained. During the same round Ali managed to grab Inoki’s foot after a failed kick attempt and dragged him across the ring but before Ali could do anything with this small advantage, the bell sounded and both men went off to their corners. The crowd were starting to warm up and appreciate the match for what it was, a clash of styles. They could see blood and bruising starting to appear around Ali’s legs due to the sheer amount and power of the kicks that Inoki was hitting Ali with.

During the 6th Round, Inoki continued with his game plan. One of his initial kicks of this round caught Ali in the groin. Referee Lebell stopped the fight momentarily and gave Inoki a warning about the placement of his kicks before returning to the action. He followed up with 2 more kicks before Ali adopted the same approach as the previous round. He grabbed the foot of Inoki with a view to immobilise him and launch an attack of his own, but Inoki being the proficient grappler of the two was able to grab Ali’s left shoe, wrap his right leg around Ali’s right calf and bring him to the mat. Inoki sat on Ali and attempted a leglock but Ali managed to kick his legs to the rope to force a break. Inoki was then issued with a further warning for throwing a back elbow towards Ali’s face during the rope break stoppage. He was deducted as point for this but as the fight restarted Ali was reprimanded for kicking out while holding the ropes.

To start the 7th round, Inoki became the intimidator. He tried to persuade Ali to meet him on the ground, but Ali refused. Ali threw a few missed kicks but then finally threw a long jab but Inoki was quick to knock him down with a sweeping kick which erupted the Tokyo crowd, but more so in favour of Ali. After the round ended, Ali’s doctor treated the wounds on his legs and Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee approached Karl Gotch to make them aware that Inoki’s leather boots were damaged, and a brass eyelet was causing the cuts to Ali’s legs. The boots were taped up to try and prevent any further cuts from taking place. They also taped the ends of Inoki’s shoelaces as they were tipped with brass.

The 8th Round. Ali had braggadociosly stated that he would end Inoki in the round during the press conferences, however the pattern of the previous rounds continued. LeBell gave Inoki another low blow warning after mistakenly believing a knock down was a result of another misplaced kick by the wrestler. One of the more uneventful rounds of the fight ended in Ali shouting ‘Inoki Nothing’ to his opponent.

Ali attempted to make progress during the 9th round of the contest, he tried to circle Inoki, looking for an opening to try and hit him with only his second successful punch of the fight. Inoki stuck to strategy and landed a huge kick which stumbled Ali into his corner. Ali was waning and his legs were showing the signs of the repeated damage caused by Inoki.

In the 10th round, Ali finally hit his second punch of the match, a jab which caught Inoki in the face. A good punch, but left Ali open to another leg kick. The crowd began to bellow for Inoki to fight standing and he graced them by charging at Ali who grabbed onto the ring ropes. The crowd were now Ali’s. Inoki’s tactics, although working well for him had not endeared him to his countrymen and they continued to chant Ali’s name as he spoke worryingly with his corner about the next 5 rounds.

After conferring with his cornermen, Ali adopted a different approach to save his beaten legs. It was suggested by Rhee, the Taekwondo expert, to block the leg blows using his arms to avoid further damage to his legs. This was successful but Ali was unable to capitalise on opportunities where he grabbed Inoki’s foot.

Before the 12th Round, Karl Gotch instructed Inoki to try and take down Ali and finish the match by pin or submission. A few have suggested that this was imparted due to Ali’s cornermen being obviously concerned for the Boxing champion. But after the last round, Ali came into the contest more confident after blocking many of Inoki’s blows with his arms. During this round, Inoki finally stood up and hit Ali with a low kick, although clean it was against the rules as one knee was not on the canvas. Ali’s corner tried to convince him to use this opportunity to attack the now standing Inoki, but he quickly went back to the ground. Towards the end of the round, people who were ringside had commented on how Ali’s left leg looked to be ‘double the size of the right’.

Ali took the centre of the ring in the 13th round, trying to push Inoki into the corner. Inoki would fake a takedown attempt, trying to force Ali into the ropes. Ali blocked him with his glove anticipating another kick, but Inoki charged at Ali grabbing a waist lock to attempt a suplex. Ali hurriedly grabbed the ropes, and the referee broke the hold and returned to the centre of the ring. During this clinch, Ali put all his weight onto Inoki which prompted Inoki to hit him with an illegal knee strike – which would also be Inoki’s 3rd warning for as low blow. After this instance, it looked as if Ali was going to leave the ring but was convinced by the referee to continue on. On the restart of the round, Inoki threw a kick but Ali responded by throwing 2 jabs which connected forcing Inoki back to the canvas as per the previous rounds.

By the 14th round, the crowd were expecting Inoki to follow suit with his tactics, but he came out throwing some bare-fisted jabs and faking a takedown before switching back to his ground kicks. Without any attempt of attack, Ali held onto the ropes which annoyed Inoki and both men exchanged taunts. Ali managed to land a jab before the end of this round, leading into the 15th and final round.

Both men shook hands at the start of this round which drew a huge ovation from the crowd. While many were optimistic about how the fight may end, they were seemingly disappointed that Inoki retreated to his familiar style for this matchup. Inoki managed to land a few kicks, Ali a final jab and the fight was over. The crowd were mixed at the ending of this match, knowing that it wasn’t the fight they were expecting and also being more vocal for Ali during the fight.

Both men shook hands after the fight and Ali declared himself the winner of the bout, claiming that Inoki’s ‘Cowardice’ lost him the fight. 2 judges, one a wrestler who scored in favour of Ali 74-72 and one a boxer who scored in favour of Inoki 72-68 left the decision down to referee Lebell, who given the points deducted from Inoki scored the fight 71-71 so a draw result was declared.

The fans were outraged and rioted within the Budokan, chanting ‘Money Back’. Janitorial staff for the arena took a full day to clean the areas due to the unhappy crown throwing items.

Ali’s leg was so severely swollen and bleeding that it led to two blood clots in his legs after an infection and amputation was discussed at one point though Ali himself downplayed this to the press saying it was nothing serious.

Inoki stated in the press sometime after the fight “I was handicapped by the rules that said no tackling, no karate chops, no punching on the mat. I kept my distance to stay away from Ali’s punches”

The fight grossed $20 million in closed circuit television in the US alone after 2 million or more PPV buys at $10 each, 54 million people watched in Japan as the day was declared a holiday for everyone to be able to watch the fight.

Years on from the fight, even though those involved had been divided over the fights legacy, but the impact that it has given to companies to learn from and engineer their own form of MMA has led to Pancrase, Pride, UFC becoming the giants within Mixed Martial arts during the 90’s. Only one of them now stand at present but the groundwork was laid by 2 legends in their respective sports.

Antonio Inoki went on to continue wrestling with New Japan Pro Wrestling, until he officially retired on April 4th, 1998. He did take breaks away from Wrestling to focus on Politics between 1989-1995 and 2013-2019. He successfully negotiated with Saddam Hussein the release of Japanese hostages before the start of the Gulf War in 1990. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010.

Muhammad Ali continued with his boxing career having 7 more fights before his final fight with Trevor Berbick. His is still regarded as arguably the greatest boxer of all time, his influence on boxing is still evident not only in performance but also, in the press conferences building to the events. He passed away on June 3rd, 2016 aged 74.

Both men, despite their in-ring differences on that day, they became friends later in life. Inoki started using Ali’s entrance music ‘The Greatest’ and in 1998, Ali flew out to watch Inoki’s retirement match against Don Frye. After Inoki’s victory, Ali climbed into the ring and hugged Inoki. Ali asked for a message to be read out to the Japanese fans.

‘It was 1976 when I fought Antonio Inoki at the Budokan. In the ring, we were tough opponents. After that, we built love and friendship with mutual respect. So, I feel a little less lonely now that Antonio has retired. It is my honour to be standing on the ring with my good friend after 22 years. Our future is bright and has a clear vision. Antonio Inoki and I put our best efforts into making world peace through sports, to prove there is only one mankind beyond the sexual, ethnical or cultural differences. It is my pleasure to come here today.’