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

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Chris Dolman was my first “submission coach,” but since his gym in Amsterdam was a two-hour drive from my home in Eindhoven, I didn’t spend a lot of time there. When I was competing in Japan I would train at the official Pancrase Dojo. I would come in a few days earlier for the fight so I could hone my submission skills. It took me three losses by way of submission to finally make the decision that I needed steady training partners in Holland; otherwise this “losing” would keep happening. And that was it—after I found a training partner I never lost again and ended my career with an unbeaten streak of twenty-two.

I’ll give you one story so you can understand why there were some rules changes just before the Ali and Inoki fight.

I was walking in Tokyo with a group of fighters the day before a match in 1994. We heard this big loud voice saying, “Hybrid wrestling, Pancrase.” We looked to the side and saw the biggest TV screen we had ever seen. When I say at least forty feet wide, I am not exaggerating. We were looking at the promo for our fight the next day; it was a compilation of KO’s and submissions from previous events.