Inoki is badass.

[AAAhmed46]

Antonio inoki is badass.



If you talk to any pakistani over the age of 40, SOME will remember a challenge issued by Akram Palwan(THe great gamas son, i may have spelled their names wrong, but i can pernounce them better then anyone)

So what happened was that Akram challenged inoki to a no holds barred fight. The entire nation of pakistan was behind him, he believed that Indian/pakistani wrestling was so unique that Inoki would be completely caught off guard.

Basically what happened was that Inoki, who from what i understand is a black belt in an offshoot of kyokushin, as well as a very experienced catch wrestler(he trained Fujita)....

Pounded the crap out of Akram palewan, and then broke his arm with a kimura/keylock, one of those two.
(though some sources say he put it on instantly without any striking)

So the people of pakistan, being PRICKS shunned and booed and hissed at Akram palewan for his failure(everybody loses, why couldn't they be more understanding)



Anyway, this was not a WWE style match, nothing like Inoki usually does. This was a real fight.

Along with other japanese catchwrestlers and shootwrestlers, he helped form MMA, was one of the pioneers along side Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, particularly in japan.


I know he worked hard on PRIDE as well. So here is a clip.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9E73FTVxRQ




Influence on Mixed Martial arts and japanese combat:
Many of Inoki's disciples, including the original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama, Masakatsu Funaki, Nobuhiko Takada, Minoru Suzuki, Akira Maeda, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuyuki Fujita, among others, have had success in mixed martial arts, and the roster of NJPW is known to have pioneered mixed martial arts federations including RINGS, Shooto, PRIDE, and Pancrase.

It is due to Antonio Inoki that fighters like Naoya Ogawa, Josh Barnett, Wallid Ismail and Ryoto Machida have actively represented NJPW in mixed martial arts events giving notoriety to it and professional wrestling.

Inoki continues to bring fighters like Mark Coleman, Quinton Jackson, Dan Bobish to the professional wrestling ring for organizing of professional wrestling events like HUSTLE.

Antonio Inoki also organizes Mixed Martial Arts events like "NJPW Ultimate Crush" and "Jungle Fight", showing traditional professional wrestling matches and mixed martial arts matches on the same card. Some of the major attractions of these events involve the best of NJPW against world renowned fighters in mixed martial arts matches.

Antonio Inoki vs Renzo Gracie [4] was a professional wrestling match that took place at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2000 against mixed martial artist Renzo Gracie.(they just played around, thats all, not a fight)

Antonio Inoki's Inoki Dojos are also known to have cross-trained wrestlers like Ken Shamrock, Kazushi Sakuraba, Chris Benoit and Samoa Joe.

Inoki is now the ambassador for the International Fight League's Tokyo entry, the Sabres.


IN karate:

KARATE:

THE ORIGINS OF
KANSUIRYU KARATE
Two men, Yukio Mizutani and Kanji Inoki, founded Kansuiryu Karate in the Mie prefecture of southern Japan.

As a young man Yukio Mizutani traveled to Okinawa and studied the Shorinryu style of karate under Shyoshin Nagamine. Upon returning to Japan Mizu Sensei began teaching karate and soon earned a reputation as a tough instructor who expected total and unquestioning commitment from his students. Training under Mizu Sensei was severe to the point of being brutal and the drop out rate amongst students was high.

Kanji ‘Antonio' Inoki, a professional wrestler and karate exponent, earned his reputation fighting opponents from Asia, Pakistan and the United States. Today Inoki remains as much a household name in Japan as is Muhammed Ali in the west (in fact the two once fought, the result being a lacklustre draw).

Inoki’s penchant for delivering off the cuff challenges soon bought him to the attention of Mizutani, who immediately proposed a bout - with the winner to be decided on the basis of whoever had a pulse afterwards! As it happened the fight never took place. The two men found they had a lot in common and became firm friends.

In 1979 Mizutani and Inoki decided to jointly found a new style of karate, which they named ‘Kansuiryu’. The name is an amalgam of both surnames; ‘kan’ from Kanji Inoki and sui being a play on words with the dual meaning of ‘water’ (mizu, the first component of the surname Mizutani also means water) or alternatively ‘essence’ or ‘elegance’.

While retaining the traditional elements of kata and weapons training, particularly for higher grades, Kansuiryu also offers vigorous competition for those who display aptitude and interest. Training reflects the full-contact nature of the tournament rules with practitioners expected to achieve a high level of fitness and technique. However, this does not mean Kansuiryu Karate is suitable only for aspiring champions – women, men or children, six years old to sixty; all that is required is enthusiasm and a willingness to challenge yourself.

Today in Japan more than seven thousand students study Kansuiryu Karate and the Kansuiryu Full Contact Karate Championships, held during October each year, is one of the largest full contact tournaments in the country.






Ive always liked him.


THe Ali/Inoki fight was a joke, and it was supposed to be a work from what i understand.


I know he's really active in japanese MMA and japanese wrestling, and has his own Shootwrestling schools.

The fight with Akram palewan(the great Gama's sons) was BRUTAL, and was what made me his fan. Too bad Akram's country men could not appreciate his defeat on a more intellectual level(id like to see them try it, 90% of them probably wouldn't last half a second)

I acknowledge that 90% of his fights were fake(he is a pro wrestler) but some like the Akram fight were real.