A Look Back At Another Boxer-Mixed Martial Arts Super Fight

Saturday’s super-hyped boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, if nothing else, gave a needed boost to the sport which has been on a steady decline since the 1980s.

For weeks since the fight was announced, sports talk shows, both on radio and television, talked about and fans debated who would win and whether the fight would last more than a round or two. There was also talk about where we would see something more aligned with sports entertainment than an actual boxing match.

In the end, the match was legit as Mayweather kept his undefeated record intact by winning by technical knockout in the 10th round. Clearly this setup favored Mayweather and the fact that McGregor made it to the 10th round against one of the best boxers of this generation says something about his conditioning and overall toughness.

It should also be noted and cannot be argued that if the roles were reversed that Mayweather would not have been able to last one round with McGregor in an Ultimate Fighting battle. That would have been ugly.

As the build up to Saturday’s match continued, my mind kept going back to 1976 when another spectacle of a similar nature took place in Japan. Boxing legend Muhammad Ali had a bout against pro wrestling legend and martial arts expert Antonio Inoki.

While I was alive when this event took place I was really too young to remember it. In later years as I became a boxing (and pro wrestling) fan I learned of the bout and was really somewhat confused by it. Ali fought the bout with gloves while Inoki did not. In seeing pictures of the bout, which went to a 15-round draw, I couldn’t comprehend what the rules were for a match of a sport that didn’t exist.

It took years for me to finally read that the match, although legit, was still somewhat of a farce because how do you judge a match for something like this. For those who have never seen it (just go to YouTube to view it) it was rather boring to be honest.

From the opening bell of round one Inoki charged Ali and then fell on his back. His primary offense was to kick at Ali’s legs. Actually Inoki caused quite a bit of damage with his kicks (remember his martial arts background) to the point that Ali later was treated for blood clots in his legs and it hampered him for the remainder of his boxing career.

Inoki knew he couldn’t stand there with Ali because he would be knocked out. His plan, although it certainly looked odd, was effective. Ali landed very few punches in the entire bout as the boxing champ appeared to be treating the entire event as a sideshow until it became clear the pain he had in his legs was so severe it was tough for him to stand.

In the end it was ruled a draw probably because no one knew how to score something of this nature.

Ali was always a showman as well as a pro wrestling fan. His entire gimmick was copied from a pro wrestler from the 1950s by the name of the Gorgeous George (once again go to YouTube if you are unfamiliar with him).

In 2017, boxing has lost a great deal of its crowd to UFC in terms of popularity. It took a bout between a boxing legend against a UFC fighter who had never been in a boxing ring to generate the amount of spectacle we witnessed this past weekend.

In some ways, it was good for boxing to be in the spotlight to this degree. In another way it was bad because it wasn’t a bout involving two pure boxers.

One thing I do know for sure: events of this nature are nothing new. They actually go all the way back to 1976.

Monticello native Chris Bridges is a long-time newspaper columnist. He welcomes feedback from readers of The Monticello News at pchrisbridges@gmail.com.