[pkleff]

I don't know much about this fight (i.e. rules) except that Inoki was afraid of Ali’s stand up, so he stayed on his back the whole time. I know this fight was broadcast on American television (free, I might add). I also know that with so few programming options back then, and with Ali’s name recognition and public interest still very high, then, there had to have been at least several million viewers. So, My questions to you, sherdogers, are; what could he have done to give Ali a fight, & make it exiting? And, (mainly), if it had been exiting what would the impact of this have been? Could we have seen a stateside MMA explosion (or at least growth) in 1976? If it would have been exiting, would we now be talking about Ali vs Inoki as the catalyst for American MMA and not UFC I?

[Dean Burley]

but it wasn't exiting

[Ninja Hater]

Exiting?

[bcnul8r]

are you serious? c'mon you can't be...

Originally Posted by pkleff

Could we have seen a stateside MMA explosion (or at least growth) in 1976?

[2y4life2]

We should stop with all these stupid "What if" threads. They lead to meaningless debate and discussion that's all based on nothing. What if the Gracie's never put the UFC together is a better discussion question than this or What if the orginal UFC's weren't run by the Gracies, would Royce be where he is today or What if Frank Shamrock never left the UFC, where would he be today or...how about what if these threadstarters stop making what if threads about stuff in the past, would Sherdog be a better forum? I think that's a better what if thread.

So all in all, we need to stop all these what if threads because they're all the same and are based on nothing. Ali vs. Inoki sucked and it wasn't exCiting.

[Dontpush39]

it wasn't exciting at all but it proved that when faced with anything but stand up a boxer folds...that being said, i truly belive that if you put up a world class boxer against a world class kickboxer...the boxer wins 9 out of 10 times...i think the best thing to do to make that fight interesting is put Ali against a "world class" kickboxer not a pro wrestler...i'm sure i misunderstood the context of this post and i appoligize for my ignorance "drunkeness"

[Sambo234]

Originally Posted by Dontpush39

it wasn't exciting at all but it proved that when faced with anything but stand up a boxer folds...that being said, i truly belive that if you put up a world class boxer against a world class kickboxer...the boxer wins 9 out of 10 times...i think the best thing to do to make that fight interesting is put Ali against a "world class" kickboxer not a pro wrestler...i'm sure i misunderstood the context of this post and i appoligize for my ignorance "drunkeness"

please see k-1 and how successful pure boxers have been.

[Lethal_Striker]

Why in the hell would you think the boxer would be better then the kickboxer? The kickboxer is adept in fighting with punches and kicks while the boxer is only good at punching.

[darkjediii]

so you're saying if ali competed in a muaythai using only boxing he would do well?

[chutebox]

inoki sucks !!