Jim Cornette on Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali 

Inoki Cornette is gonna haunt me forever.

The first “Brawl-for-All” if you will

Ali was a beast with the footwork and hand speed. True athlete.

The chin is too accurate.

If you want to go back even further, I'm pretty sure Inoki was inspired by legendary Karate Master Mas Oyama who was said to have travelled around the world seeking out strong opponents from different fighting backgrounds. Just as Inoki's mentor Rikidozan also competed against combatants of mixed styles before the dawn of mixed martial arts.

Corny with the inoki chin is the stuff of nightmares

I recall Bret Hart briefly talking about this match in his book. I was actually expecting Jim would have a different story, but glad to learn that Bret was telling the true story. At least as insiders knew it. LOL

Ali's mobility being hindered because of the blood clots didn't help him out later on when you consider that he was already getting pounded on in prior fights using rope-a-dope technique against his opponents, including Joe Frazier.

Would enjoy Corny speaking upon the Greatest more, considering they both did Louisville Proud 🥊

I do remember the Antonio Inoki Exhibition Fight. The background story was this: the prelim fight was between another japanese wrestler & "The Real Rocky" Chuck Wepner. The fighr was ON, with very little rule modifications & restrictions. Wepner was wrestled and thrown 3 times like a ragdoll & game over! Ali's camp has to demand for a last second extreme rule changes realizing all the freedom of technique wrestling have vs. a 2-gloved handed fighter! If they had done it to Wepner, FOR SURE, Ali will fall on the same fate against the monster champion wrestler. Inoki will SURELY turn Ali like a ragdoll too! The demanded rules were approved at the last second to avoid inevitable humiliation to the 🌎 watching. When camp of Inoki was informed, the new rules were so restricting like he cannot grapplw, he cannot lift & carry Ali, he cannot basically use his arms or else he will be eliminated, what was left for the wrestler to do to avoid getting penalized is a no-choice to stay down on his back and fight with his legs & feet. This is the reason why he stayed down and since Ali cannot punch him in his face, all Ali can do was box the other guy's legs. This ridiculous turn out was actually to protect Ali from turning into a ragdoll & getting really hurt. Inoki's camp agreed because it was only minutes before the main event was to happen and they figured, OK, they don't want him to use his hands, then he'll just stay down on the canvass where Ali will NEVER make a hit on Inoki's head & body, and all the hitting will only really be coming Inoki's feet to Ali's legs. True enough, one of the most hyped exhibition fight turned out to be a dope & turkey with hilarious scenes of Ali jumping up to set his feet on the ropes to avoid those stinging kicks. This resulted to multiple blood clots on Ali's legs 🦵 and they were bad enough for Ali's MD to advice him to delay his flight ✈️ for another wk or so to have the clots dissolve first. If he rides a plane with those Acute DVTs in there, it could dislodge and becomes multiple embolism with the change of altitude & could travel to his lungs or heart and will kill him. It really didn't become a classic because it did not give justice to both sports and just turned into a circus, fiasco, & comedy!

Chin Cornette

The referee was "Judo" Gene LeBell. Some folks thought Gene could whip them both. I... wouldn't bet against him.

Bro you cant tell me that the bro for all wasnt better than this 🥱

I never saw the match and maybe that's a good thing but in the long run it has been considered the forerunner to what is now the sport of mma so maybe hinoki can be given credit for this global phenomenon

Everyone in the comments is focused on Ali? Why? Inoki literally had so many handy caps yet still did enough damage to have lasting effects? That’s a fucking true fighter.

Ali lost his legs from the 3 year lay off and it was evident in his fight against Joe Frazier in 1971. Inoki was 5 years later. Ali was 34 when he fought Inoki. He was already done.

Wow it would've be so cool to have seen this match live. Rest In Peace Muhammad Ali

RIP Inoki

That's why I can't understand why people in shoot and work fighting agrees to terms knowing what they are getting into then change their minds after the agreed terms.. That's the most backward mindset of all time..

Did Ali changing his mind on the match affect his pay for the event?

It's good Cornette is giving us content eventho the finals on & the baseball game, real competitor compeat and in this pandemic ppl do 2 things & I'm one of em.

AHAHAHAHAH JIM WITH INOKI'S CHIN

That "fight" was total utter garbage but still RIP Antonio Inoki.

Inoki then went on to job for The Bad News Bears.

One of the weirdest things I ever seen. Did they randomly book this at last minute

Inoki vs Suzuki... who you picking?

Harry Carrie and Harry Carrie Jr. LMAO

It was 3 million. Still lots of $

Things not to remember...

Ali will always be the greatest! Antonio is a legit badass! 🥊🥊🥊

Crazy match

I was there. I am the greatest.

Cornette as quagmire

That match made me so mad

Leg kicks

You know..back when I was a teen I had always wondered why in the blue fuck did WCW Vs. NWO world tour on N64 have someone on the wrestler roster that looked like Ali with a fro in it....twenty years later... Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 👍

Harry Caray?

Inoki absolutely embarrassed himself and the wrestling industry during this !🤡 can’t believe people actually praise him for this lmaooooooooo

He should of done business

Got Inoki's chin right

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TRUMP 2020. Don't fail me nerds. Go out and vote. Mr trump will do great things for virgins. He's got you. Trump 2020

Made me lose what little respect I had for Ali. The guy was a massive coward, too afraid to actually fight Inoki so his lawyers turned it into a massive handicap match, and not only was he unable to win with this massive advantage but he basically got crippled by a guy who was only allowed to use a tiny fraction of his repertoire. The guy was a joke by that point.

haha Jim Inoki

Corny as Inoki, even with the giant mutant chin

Timothy Thatcher vs Tyson Fury. Book it Vince.

This took absolutely no years off Ali's career, anyone with a brain knows that 3rd Frazier fight that happened a year before this is what took everything out of Ali.Fighting 4 times in 76 against Young and Norton and Taking punches from Ernie Shavers a year later did him no good either.

This really sucked lol

The funniest thing ali ever did

1

Ali the draft dodoger

First ten comments! Lol

My Dad volunteered to go fight in Vietnam. Clay is a wimp.