Ali vs. Inoki: The Forgotten Fight That Inspired Mixed Martial Arts and Launched Sports Entertainment

I was born after this event took place and I had no idea this even existed. Very entertaining read! Happy I discovered this book!

The book is well written and gives you a nice look into what made the fight come together. Unfortunately, the fight was boring and so is the chapter covering it. Not much you can do to spice it up, but over all I recommend this book.

Fun book, considerably better than the fight itself! Covers a ton more than just the titular event, with tons of great stories about people like Jhoon Rhee, Rikidozan, Gene Lebell, both Vince McMahons, Classy Freddie Blassie, etc. Explains the motivations of all the parties involved, from the fighters to the promoters to the fans who paid to see it in arenas and movie theaters across the US.This is a great boxing book, a great wrestling book, and a great mixed martial arts book. Recommended to anyone who has even a passing interest in fight sports or pro wrestling.

This was an interesting book by Gross and I really enjoyed the parts of it that focused on boxing. Gross did a very good job of researching the subject. He alternated chapters on Ali and Inoki and I found the Ali chapters very engrossing. The chapters on Inoki were well-written and informative but I just didn't have much interest in the wrestling end of it so I often glossed over those pages. Still, it was a good read overall. Gross did a very good job of presenting the fight itself and Ali's frustrations during the 15 rounds. I learned a lot I didn't know about this event.

As a longtime fan of both MMA and boxing (plus pro wrestling), I have been waiting to read this book since the day I first heard about it and it has not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it in many ways. This book doesn't just do a good job with detailing what happened before and after the fight, but it also delves into great detail about the fight itself with round by round recaps. A must read for all sports fans.

More then just about this historic fight, but a surprising and in depth look at freestyle fighting pre UFC. Recommend for fans of wrestling, boxing, or any martial arts enthusiast.

It took me about a year to finally check reading this book of my list and I definitively regret not getting to this sooner. This is an amazing read that any wrestling or sports fan should give a look.

If you are a MMA fan, then you have to read this book. This is where MMA started, an event which left people guessing what they had just witnessed. It might have not turned out as people wished, but its place in combat sports history is without question.

I'll keep this brief.I bought this on the strength of Joss Gross's reputation as an excellent MMA writer.Very little of the actual book is about Ali vs Inoki ! 90% of the book is taken up with various histories - such as the early history of American wrestling around the 'Toots' Mondt era, and other even more obscure histories that I can't even remember.Whilst these histories are excellently researched and written, THEY ARE NOT THE REASON YOU OR I BOUGHT THE BOOK ! We bought the book to read about the Ali vs Inoki fight, and of that there is nothing that you can't find on Wikipedia, or Google.Also, Antonio Inoki refused to contribute to the book. Whch, without his perspective and input, makes the book much less valuable.On my Kindle, THE BOOK ENDS AT 74% !! The remaining 26% being the INDEX !! So I felt a little cheated there.

Like most boxing fans I worship at the shrine of Muhammad Ali but having read many books about him over the years I felt there was no need for me to ever purchase any more. But the Inkoi match is a part of Ali's career that is either ignored or glossed over so interest piqued this was an essential purchase. The book held my interest but only just on occasion. The author goes into a great deal of background on the characters and history of American and Japanese wrestling presumably to pad out the book a little bit or maybe because of his own enthusiasm for the subject.The Ali vs Inoki boxer-wrestler match has been largely forgotten about by boxing fans possibly because the lack of action made it the most boring event The Greatest took part in. Nevertheless the story behind it is an intriguing one and worth a read.

My Dad can beat up your Dad was a threat heard around the playground a lot but never acted upon. As far as I'm aware. That's what happened when Ali asked Ichiro Hatta the then president of the Japanese Amateur Wrestling Association for an "oriental fighter who will challenge me.' The remark was parlayed back to Japan where it caused uproar, but the challenge was met by Antonio Inoki, not a boxer but a famed catch wrestler trained by Karl Gotch. Even though it was a massive fight at the time being beamed around the world to an estimated audience of 1.4 billion. Yet despite such a large audience, these days the fight is largely forgotten. In a new book, Ali V Inoki, Josh Gross attempts to frame it as the fight that birthed modern day MMA.He is largely successful in that respect. The beginning is a little scattershot in its approach. as we alternate between the stories of both combat forms, boxing and puroresu/catch wrestling. We get a look a various members of the boxing community in LA, wrestling out in the East Coast, and the pioneering of catch-as-catch-can wrestling in the Snake Pit in Wigan as well as the rise of wrestling in Japan via Inoki's mentor Rikidōzan. They all set the context and scene for the fight but some paragraphs take too long for the pay off, such as the tantalising prospect of JFK's involvement with wrestling that clouds what follows until the paltry pay-off.It's not until we alternate between the story of the contestants in the bout and what it means to them that the narrative gains cohesion. It fascinating to hear about the sheer number of fights that Ali took in his heyday. The Inoki fight was sandwiched between others only months apart. Compare that with the elite boxers doing at most three bouts a year and that would be considered prolific. Then on Inoki's side we get his desire to test himself against the best opposition no matter their fighting style to prove that catch wrestling can beat all comers. And there's a another layer of intrigue on both sides of the Pacific as to whether the fight should and would be a "work" (a fix) or a shoot (legit). In the end it was the numerous rules that favoured Ali that hindered the fight.To Gross' credit the fight itself, all fifteen rounds are expertly handled. The fight itself was disappointing, you only have to go on YouTube to see that, one and a half minutes of highlights to match-up that lasted a whole hour. Gross could have easily reeled off a tedious play-by-play and instead looks at the tactics Ali and Inoki were trying to utilise and how they relate to their respective disciplines. The result is a lively account that heightens the intrigue in how a real fight with minimal rules would play out.At first it is almost hard to believe that this fight had the impact on MMA that Gross claims as it isn't as well revered (in boxing circles it's seen as an embarrassment) as Ali's more famous fights against Foreman and Frazier. But it appears it did with the Pride in Japan and UFC in the States coming soon after wanting to offer true competition between disciplines with only the most essential of rules such as no eye-gouging and biting. Many believed the convoluted rules set in place by Ali's camp hindered his fight with Inoki from being a real contest between a boxer and catch wrestler. With MMA there was now a space to do so.While Ali Vs Inoki gets off to a shaky start it more than redeems itself by the end when it's impact of MMA is clear. Gross' is one of the first to attempt a book on the birth of MMA as we know it today and does a good job at getting the ball rolling and putting forth his argument. It remains to be seen if someone else will offer a competing view. Books on MMA intend to revolve around the instructional or biographical and in some bizarre cases romance. With MMA now in the public eye with the recent burst into the mainstream with Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey now is the best chance to stake a claim to the beginnings of a truly global sport.Ali Vs Inoki by Josh Gross, is published by BenBella Books (£11.99 / $16.99)

This is the fight that everybody ignores. This is for me, the fight which started the real decline of Ali. It was good to see the build up of the fight and how Inoki would not engage in the Ali mind games. Inoki should have been feted worldwide and not just a God in Japan. The fight was a non event and easily written off.

Great and informative read! Not other source will provide as much information on this fight! Josh Gross did a great job