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Antonio Inoki, a martial arts pioneer, influential politician and larger-than-life figure in his native Japan, died on Friday at the age of 79. This was announced by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling promotion he founded.

Inoki’s cause of death has not been released, but he had become ill in recent years and was confined to a wheelchair.

Inoki retired from politics in 2019. Although he touched many parts of Japanese culture during his lifetime and became one of the most famous people in the country, Inoki was best known for his work in martial arts as a professional wrestler, promoter and fighter — in particular, his bout with Muhammad I do.

Inoki was the most important professional wrestler in Japanese history, selling out countless arenas and stadiums from the 1970s onwards. He was also the first Japanese wrestler to win the WWF Championship (although the reign is not currently recognized by WWE) and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010.

On June 26, 1976, Inoki fought Ali in perhaps the most high-profile mixed martial arts fight ever. Inoki had a background in amateur wrestling and judo and trained under wrestler Karl Gotch, developing a fighting methodology he called the “strong style”. Ali was, of course, one of the best boxers at the time and incredibly famous in the world.

But against Inoki was the direct ancestor of what we now know as mixed martial arts, which has become a global sport led by the UFC, founded in 1993. The fight was one of the most watched fights of its generation. In addition to a sold-out audience of more than 14,000 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, it was broadcast in closed circuit around the world.

Shea Stadium in New York televised the match on its big screen and drew a crowd of 32,897 with professional wrestling and mixed martial arts matches. Ali vs. Inoki ended in a draw, but Inoki spent most of the 15-round contest on his back, pounding Ali’s legs and landing those punches more than 100 times. Ali took much more damage than Inoki in the match and suffered leg injuries.

Boxing was by far the most popular combat sport at the time, especially in the United States, but Ali vs. Inoki forced upon many the idea that boxing might not be the best style to win a more fluid, all-out fight, a debate that raged for decades before Ali vs. Inoki and for years afterward. until the dawn of the UFC.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu pioneer Carlson Gracie once said that Inoki was “one of the best fighters” he had seen. Ahead of his historic boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, UFC superstar Conor McGregor has cited Ali vs. Inoki several times as an influence on him regarding a crossover fight with Mayweather.

“Ali tried to reach and punch and he ended up getting swept,” McGregor said at the Mayweather pre-fight media scrum. “Inoki ended up on top and the referee immediately took him away. If he had let that moment go for another five seconds, another 10 seconds, Inoki would have wrapped around his neck or arm or limb and the entire face of the fighting world would have changed immediately.”

In the current combat sports environment where it has become common for boxers to fight MMA fighters and pro wrestlers to fight YouTubers and so on and so forth, Ali vs. Inoki was way ahead of its time.

Inoki used his popularity gained from fighting Ali to become the most popular professional wrestler in Japanese history. He founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1972 and was the promotion’s biggest star for over a decade, having major matches with Hulk Hogan, Dory Funk Jr., Big Van Vader and Bruiser Brody.

But Inoki’s vision was to merge what became known as MMA and professional wrestling. One of his students, Nobuhiko Takada, helped start the MMA promotion PRIDE Fighting Championships in 1997, which became very popular and was later purchased by the UFC. Inoki has been to many Pride shows as part of the launch ceremonies and parachuted from a plane into the Tokyo National Stadium in front of over 90,000 people at the 2002 Pride Shockwave.

“I learned so much from Mr. Inoki,” Rizin promoter and Pride founder Nobuyuki Sakakibara wrote in an Instagram post. “The spirit of ‘Toukon’ inherited RIZIN from PRIDE. I really loved that he could enter RIZIN’s ring. I’m devastated. May his soul rest in peace.”

During the 2000s, Inoki promoted several hybrid MMA and professional wrestling cards. Inoki, who spent many of his teenage years in Brazil, fought MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Renzo Gracie in an exhibition match in front of more than 40,000 people in Osaka in 2000. Prior to that, Inoki’s last official professional wrestling match came against current UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye in 1998 in front of 70,000 spectators at the Tokyo Dome.

During this period, Inoki opened a training academy for MMA fighters and professional wrestlers in Los Angeles called Inoki Dojo. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, as well as Bryan Danielson and Shinsuke Nakamura, both now very popular professional wrestlers, were students there. Inoki also managed and coached Machida early in the MMA great’s career.

“I owed him so much because it all started for me when nobody knew me, and Inoki-san gave me a unique opportunity to be a professional athlete,” Machida told ESPN. “There is a word in Japanese called ‘guiri.’ It means recognizing people who have done something at the beginning where [someone] has no options, and he did it for me.

“I truly appreciated everything he did for the fight world and what he represented as a human being and a fighter. Thank you to my godfather and RIP.”

Apart from sports, Inoki was the main mover and shaker in the political world. He founded his own political party, the Sports and Peace Party, and was elected to Japan’s House of Councilors in 1989. Inoki flew to Iraq in 1996 on a one-man diplomatic mission and negotiated with Saddam Hussein for the release of 36 Japanese hostages.

He was also an elected politician in the Japanese government from 2013 to 2019, when he controversially advocated for the continuation of diplomacy with North Korea. Inoki has long had relations with North Korea. His original professional wrestling coach, Rikidozan, was of North Korean descent.

Inoki helped organize the country’s two-day professional wrestling festival in 1995, which drew 150,000 on the first day and 190,000 on the second day. Inoki defeated Ric Flair in the main event, the only time the two legends wrestled against each other.

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