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

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Two nights before arriving in Tokyo, Ali asserted on The Tonight Show how serious this fight was to him. Actor McLean Stevenson spent the final of four consecutive guest-hosting spots fawning over Ali in a way that must have made his previous visitors—Sonny Bono, Harvey Korman, Suzanne Somers, Kreskin, Bernadette Peters, Phyllis Diller, and Rip Taylor—feel like nobodies.

“I have no idea what to say,” Stevenson murmured once Ali sat down. “I suppose we could start with, ‘How did you get started boxing?’ Now if you find any of these questions stupid, just punch Ed in the mouth.”

As the studio laughter subsided, Ali said, indeed, it was “a stupid question.”

“I’ve been asked that so much,” he replied. “I thought you were going to ask me how I got started rasslin’. Boxing is old news. We’re in a new field now. We’re going to Japan to take on this Antonio Inoki, the world’s heavyweight karate wrestling champion. This is a whole new thing. People have always wondered how would a boxer do with a wrestler. I’ve always wanted to fight a wrestler. I’ve seen them grabbing each other. Throwing each other down and twisting each other’s arm. And I said, ‘Boy I could whoop him. All you gotta do is hit him, hit him really fast and hard and move off of him.’ And now I’m going to get a chance to do it. This will be something. I predict this will outsell all of my fights, and I’m the biggest draw in the world. Everybody should watch this fight.