Úff…þetta er stór og flókin spurning. Menn eru ekki sammála um nákvæmlega hvað var málið með þennan bardaga, og hann var frekar klúðurslegur.
Inoki er prowrestling legend í Japan, og hann skoraði á fullt af allskonar gaurum úr ýmsum bardagalistum. Sumir bardagarnir voru ekta en aðrir ekki. Bardaginn við Ali var víst ekta, en fæstir myndu kalla hann “MMA” sem slíkan.
The worked theory also arises from Inoki's June 26, 1976 match in Tokyo with Muhammad Ali.[3] Inoki initially promised Ali a worked match to get him to fight in Japan, but when the deal materialized Ali's camp feared that Inoki would turn the fight into a shoot, which many believe was Inoki's intention. Ali visited a professional wrestling match involving Inoki and witnessed Inoki's grappling ability. This led Ali's camp to restrict the fight to striking rules only, with grappling disallowed.[citation needed] The rules of the match were announced several months in advance. Two days before the match, however, several new rules were added which severely limited the moves that each man could perform. A rule change that had a major outcome on this match was that Inoki could only throw a kick if one of his knees was on the ground.[3] In the match, Ali landed a total of six punches to Inoki and Inoki kept to his back in a defensive position almost the full duration of the match of 15 rounds, hitting Ali with a low kick repeatedly.[4] The bout ended in a draw, 3-3. Ali left without a press conference and suffered damage to his legs as a result of Inoki's repeated leg kicks.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_InokiEinnig má minnast á að Inoki var á tímabili umboðsmaður og “guðfaðir” Lyoto Machida og Kazauki Fujita, og hefur verið áhrifamikill í japönsku MMA á bakvið tjöldin. Frekar vafasamur gaur sem að sumir vilja meina að sé innvinklaður í japönsku mafíuna, þó svo að hann geti aldrei orðið fullgildur meðlimur, þar sem hann er ekki “full-blooded” japani.