:: THE HISTORY OF INOKI BOM-BA-YE ::

When Antonio Inoki started NJPW, he was on a journy to prove pro wrestling was the ultimate form of fighting and the king of all martial arts. "REAL PRO WRESTLING" was the theme of NJPW, and this eventually turned into what is now known as "STRONG STYLE PRO WRESTLING." After proving, Inoki was the number one pro wrestler in japan in the PRO WRESTLING NUMBER ONE JAPAN EVENT (1974). Inviting top pro wrestlers from the outside, in 1976, Antonio Inoki moved onto proposing NUMBER ONE WORLD MARTIAL ARTS FIGHTING. Each fight was original because Inoki fought under various rules against various types of martial artists. Inoki first defeated the olympic gold medalist, William Ruska, and finally made his way up to facing one of the biggest match that changed Inoki's life and the future of his company NJPW. It was the ultimate MMA fight against the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, The Great Muhammad Ali.

PRO WRESTLING VS BOXING, this fight in 1976 brought the world together, and made headline news. The fight was built up carefully, and the ticket prices rose up in Japan. The ticket prices were approximately set as follows:
Royal Ring Side $3,000
Special Ring Side $1,000
A version Ring Side $800
B version Ring Side $600
Special First Floor $500
Limited 1st Floor Seat A $400
Limited 1st Floor Seat B $300
Limited 2nd Floor Seat C $200
Limited 2nd Floor Seat D $100
Limited 2nd Floor Seat E $50

The high price tickets sold out instantly and made huge publicity, and the news was aired all around the world. In the US, the match was aired on closed circuit TV, and in Japan, the program was aired twice on the same day. In Japan, this PRO WRESTLING VS BOXING caught extremely high rating of 54.6%, and the average was 46% which was a gigantic hit.

The fight ended in a dramatic 15-round draw, but the next day, the media headlines blasted the MMA fight saying that it was the most terrible match ever. In the audience's eyes, the fight was only about Inoki lying on the ring kicking Ali's leg for the full 15 rounds. The amount of bashing review grew, but on the sixth day after the battle, the world heard the shocking news of Ali flying into Los Angeles for his movie shoot of ALI THE GREATEST but claiming his pain in his swollen left leg and heading directly to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, Los Angeles . The world eventually found out the articles in the tabloids were wrong, and the intense truth behind the scene slowly unrevealed. Later in Muhammad Ali's journal photo book, "A Thirty-Year Journey" by Howard L. Bingham published by Simon & Schuster Inc., there is a black and white photo of Ali lying on the bed in his Keio Plaza Hotel Emperial Sweet Room #4121 the next day of the fight with his whole left foot gauzed up due to swelling and blood clots resulting from the match against Inoki. Some fighting specialized critiques said that after this fight against Inoki, the almighty heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali never was the same Ali who would "float like a butterfly". Years later, the world found out that Inoki and Ali's vision was way ahead of their time to put on a mixed martial arts fight between the world's two best heavyweights and reconsidered the importance of this historic fight. Later, many followed Inoki's foot steps, many imitated the idea of fighting against boxers, many fought against mixed martial artists, and the market grew, but through one man called Antonio Inoki, it all began.

* The truth behind the scene can be read in the the book "The Truth of Inoki and Ali fight" (Japanese only) published by Weeklly Gong, Japan Sports Publishing Company. This book went on sale exactly 20 years later from Inoki VS Ali fight because many of the contract had expired. In this book, there are deep details of what went on for the build-up of the fight, true rule set up for the fight which was never focused and announced publicly, detailed review of the fight, and individual interviews form the insiders such as the refree Geen Lable, the translator Ken Tajima, conner men for both sides Fred Blassie (Ali Side) and Carl Gotch (Inoki Side), Inoki's manager Hisashi Shinma, and a direct interview from Antonio Inoki. And many more truths about this ultimate battle are unrevealed.

Through this historic battle, the two fighters, Inoki & Ali, bonded and became lifetime soul mates and rivals, and their tight friendship grew. As a gift, Muhammad Ali personally gave Inoki his theme music, "ALI BOM-BA-YE", written by Michael Masser in 1977, from Ali's self promoting ALI THE GREATEST movie. From the day receiving the theme music, Inoki has used Ali's theme song for his entrance music, and as years passed on, the music was arranged into his world famous "INOKI BOM-BA-YE." Carrying this history, "Bom-Ba-Ye," meaning "kill him," represents the core reality behind the fighting-arts and as a revival of Inoki's fighting spirit and was selected to be the name of the world famous INOKI BOM-BA-YE fighting festival.