The promotion he founded, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, announced the death of Antonio Inoki on Friday.
The cause of Inoki's death was not released, but he had fallen ill in the past and had to use a wheelchair.
Inoki ended his political career in 2019. Though he touched many parts of Japanese culture in his lifetime and became one of the most famous people in the country, Inoki was most known for his work in combat sports as a pro wrestler, promoter and fighter.
The most important professional wrestler in Japan's history was Inoki, who sold out stadiums and arenas from the 1970s to the present day. He was the first Japanese wrestler to win the WWF title, and he was also the first to ever be in the WWE Hall of Fame.
The highest-profile mixed-rules bout ever was between Inoki and Muhammad Ali. He trained under Karl Gotch and developed a "strong style" of fighting. One of the top boxers in the world at the time was Ali.
The UFC was founded in 1993 and is now a global sport. The Ali vs. Inoki fight was watched by many people. It aired on closed-circuit across the world in addition to the sell-out crowd in Tokyo.
A crowd of over 30,000 watched the bout on the big screen at the stadium.
Boxing was the most popular combat sport in the United States at that time.
During the lead up to his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, the UFC star mentioned Ali vs. Inoki a number of times. Carlson Gracie once said that Inoki was one of the best fighters he had ever watched.
"Ali tried to reach down and punch and he ended up getting swept," said the fighter before his fight with the boxer. The referee separated it immediately. The whole face of the combat world would have changed right there and then, if that moment in time was to let go for five more seconds, 10 more seconds, Inoki would have wrapped around his neck or his arm or a limb and the entire face of the combat world would have changed
In a current combat sports landscape where it is common for boxers to fight MMA fighters and pro wrestlers to fight YouTubers, Ali vs. Inoki was far ahead of its time.
After defeating Ali, Inoki became the most popular pro wrestler in Japan. He founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1972 and was the promotion's biggest star for more than a decade.
It was Inoki's idea to blend MMA and pro wrestling. The MMA promotion PRIDE Fighting Championships was started by one of his students and later purchased by the UFC. As part of its introduction ceremony, Inoki did a parachute jump from an airplane into Tokyo National Stadium in front of a crowd of more than 100,000 people.
Inoki promoted pro wrestling and mixed martial arts cards. Inoki, who spent many of his adolescent years in Brazil, took on Renzo Gracie in an exhibition match in Osaka, Japan, in 2000, in front of more than 40,000 people. Inoki's final pro-wrestling match was against current UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye at the Tokyo Dome.
Inoki opened up a training academy for pro wrestlers and MMA fighters in Los Angeles. Two of the most popular pro wrestlers in the world were students at the school. Machida was managed and taught by Inoki.
"I owe him a lot because he gave me a chance to be a professional athlete and I didn't know it at the time," Machida said. guiri is a word in Japanese. It means to recognize people who did something for someone who doesn't have a lot of chances.
He represented a human being and a fighter in everything he did. I would like to thank my uncle and his family.
Inoki was a major player in the politics of the day. He was elected into the Japanese House of Councillors after starting his own political party. Inoki traveled to Iraq in 1996 to negotiate the release of 36 Japanese hostages.
He was an elected politician in the Japanese government from 2013 to 2019. Inoki had a relationship with the North Koreans. Rikidozan was a pro-wrestling trainer.
Inoki helped organize a pro-wrestling festival in 1995 that drew 150,000 on the first day and 185,000 on the second. The only times the two legends wrestled each other was in the main event.
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