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

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Charged with protecting Ali from body-snatchers, backbreakers, and everything else he wasn’t used to was a man the champ had long admired: beguiling retired pro wrestler “Classy” Freddie Blassie, who, at fifty-eight, still cut an imposing figure. Blassie emerged from behind the multicolored The Tonight Show curtain without his cane, a staple of his pro wrestling gimmick after becoming a “manager” in the sunset years of his fondly remembered career. The cane, he liked to say, wasn’t a tool to lean on. A man of his distinction simply required a walking stick—not to mention a respectable weapon should the need arise. The blond Blassie strode towards Carson’s occupied desk draped in his usual getup—a Hawaiian shirt and khaki slacks—and Ali gladly made space for his “new trainer” by sliding over next to Ed McMahon on the couch. Using catchphrases cultivated over four decades of working every pro wrestling territory worth knowing, Blassie plowed over that “pencil-neck geek” Stevenson. As it was, Ali was attempting to sell a legitimate fight, not a pro wrestling bonanza, and he sensed Blassie’s over-the-top shtick would confuse the audience. So the boxer cut him off.