Antonio Inoki, a famous Japanese professional wrestler turned politician, died on Saturday at the age of 79. The public television channel NHK reported that he had suffered a cardiac arrest.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling is deeply saddened by the passing of our founder, Antonio Inoki.
His achievements, both in professional wrestling and in the global community, are unparalleled and will never be forgotten.
Our thoughts are with Inoki’s family, friends and fans. pic.twitter.com/n8zA9hj78e
– NJPW Worldwide (@njpwglobal) October 1, 2022
At 1.90 meters tall, Inoki pioneered mixed martial arts in Japan and rose to fame in 1976 when he faced world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in an unusual showdown in Tokyo between a struggling athlete and a boxer.
In 1989, he was elected a member of the Upper House of the Japanese Parliament by the now-defunct Sports and Peace Party. As a legislator, he traveled to Iraq before the 1990 Gulf War to free Japanese hostages.
Inoki lost his parliamentary seat in 1995 and retired from the fighting world three years later, but was re-elected to the Senate in 2013 by another opposition party.
After establishing strong ties with North Korea, Inoki visited the country several times to help resolve the issue of the Japanese kidnapped by Pyongyang during the Cold War, before ending his political career in 2019. In 2020, Inoki revealed that he had been diagnosed with a heart condition.
WWE remembers Antonio Inoki.
1943-2022 pic.twitter.com/I9JF377dLb– WWE (@WWE) October 1, 2022
Source: DN
