From Ali v Inoki to Mayweather v McGregor: 5 weird boxing bouts

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From Ali v Inoki to Mayweather v McGregor: 5 weird boxing bouts

George Foreman v the Toronto 5

In 1975 the previous heavyweight champion Foreman takes on 5 opponents on the identical afternoon in bouts of three three-minute rounds every in Toronto. Muhammad Ali is ringside offering withering putdowns for the ABC tv community six months on from their colossal “Rumble within the Jungle”. Foreman, who’s making an attempt to rebuild his status, takes on respectable fighters in Alonzo Johnson, Pedro Agosto, Mac Foster, Terry Daniels and Boone Kirkman. To a background of booing, Foreman wins the lot. “I’d placed on a present. I’d fought 5 guys, and I’d made it via. It was an enormous victory for me,” he says afterwards.

George Foreman (left) fights Boone Kirkman within the fifth of 5 three-round bouts on April 26, 1975 on the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario. {Photograph}: Focus On Sport/Getty Photographs

Muhammad Ali v Antonio ‘The Pelican’ Inoki

9 months on from his third and last struggle towards Joe Frazier, the “Thrilla in Manila”, Ali has been busy boxing stooges such because the Yorkshireman Richard Dunn in Munich. So in June 1976 he travels to Tokyo and takes on the large Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki for a cool $6m, contesting the title of “Hardest Man on the Planet” at a soldout Budokan. Ali has a lower than complimentary nickname for Inoki – “The Pelican” due to his huge bullseye chin – and what follows is 15 rounds of pure slapstick as Inoki lays flat on the canvas providing solely kicks and Ali, leaping out of the way in which, throws solely six punches.

Muhammad Ali and Antonio Inoki go toe to ankle in Tokyo in 1976. {Photograph}: Bettmann/Getty Photographs

Muhammad Ali v Lyle Alzado

In July 1979, the now 37-year-old Ali fights an eight-round exhibition towards the burly American soccer star Lyle Alzado at Mile Excessive Stadium, Colorado. Ali’s earlier aggressive bout had seen him regain the heavyweight title from Leon Spinks in August 1978 whereas Alzado is pushing for a brand new take care of the Denver Broncos – having fought within the Golden Gloves he desires to show he has profession prospects exterior the NFL. Earlier than the exhibition bout Ali goes into full motormouth mode, taunting Alzado: “We’re mates now, we smile and we giggle. However when the bell rings, we rumble. You’ve bought some nerve. I’m not in form to struggle no Joe Frazier or Foreman, however I’m in form for a soccer participant.” Amid all of the blather, 15,000 flip as much as watch, leaving 60,000 empty seats for a forgettable waltz across the ring that Ali struggles to take critically.

Ali throws a punch amid his eight-round exhibition towards Lyle Alzado at Mile Excessive Stadium. {Photograph}: Denver Put up/Getty Photographs

Shaquille O’Neal v Oscar De La Hoya

The 2009 bout is a part of a TV collection referred to as “Shaq Vs” the place the basketball legend takes on different huge sporting figures within the boxing ring. The struggle takes place in Paradise, Nevada and consists of 4 two-minute rounds and a one-minute fifth spherical. The undersized De La Hoya outboxes O’Neal and walks away with a unanimous determination, however the former LA Lakers nice later says: “I held again ‘trigger he was my pal.”

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Shaquille O’Neal and Oscar De La Hoya strike a pose at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada. Spoiler alert: the little man received. {Photograph}: Denise Truscello/WireImage

Floyd Mayweather v Conor McGregor

It’s August 2017 and the best boxer of his era, unbeaten in 49 paying fights in 5 weight lessons, faces off towards an opponent with no skilled boxing expertise however an enormous noise in blended martial arts. Mayweather is lined as much as pocket $100m from the PT Barnum-style “superfight”, and broadcasts his retirement from boxing straight after his Tenth-round, 30-minute TKO victory.


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