TK Ali vs. Inoki Ali vs. Inoki The Forgotten Fight That Inspired Mixed Martial Arts and Launched Sports Entertainment By Josh Gross BenBella Books Dallas, TX Copyright © 2015 by Josh Gross All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. BenBella Books, Inc. 10300 N. Central Expressway Suite #530 Dallas, TX 75231 www.benbellabooks.com Send feedback to
[email protected] Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: TK Editing by Erin Kelley Copyediting by Scott Calamar Proofreading by TK and TK Indexing by TKCover design by TKText design and composition by TKPrinted by TK Distributed by Perseus Distribution perseusdistribution.com To place orders through Perseus Distribution: Tel: (800) 343-4499 Fax: (800) 351-5073 E-mail:
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[email protected] or (214) 750-3628. 4 TK Contents Foreword Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Acknowledgements About the Author 5 Foreword CHAPTER ONE The southern coast of Honshu, the largest and most populous of Japan’s four main islands, trembled at 10:19 P.M. local time, Friday, June 18, 1976. Thirty-eight miles away in Tokyo, the most famous man on the planet and some of the troop that followed him everywhere he went had just settled into their rooms on the forty-fourth floor at the upscale Keio Plaza Hotel.