Slap of Respect

[jmt225]

This happened after Lyoto Machida's (current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion) very first professional MMA bout against Kengo Watanabe in 2003. Below the video is the backstory of the slap. I thought it was some pretty cool stuff some here would find interesting.

[YOUTUBE]LIZgkjGBeYc[/YOUTUBE]​

During one visit to a school in the 80's, Antonio Inoki was punched twice by a student. Inoki slapped the student across the face, knocking him down. The student, who later turned out to be an Inoki fan, then rose, bowed deeply, and thanked Inoki for the slap. The incident became very famous as the then live clip of the binta (slap in the face) was shown many times on Japanese television. Now various celebrities and even common people in Japan ask Inoki to slap them to install courage or even as some sort of strange blessing. The slap's name is the "Fighting Spirit (or Toukon) Slap."

 

[SavageTaker]

That's pretty cool and interesting. I didn't know that Inoki had that much respect in Japan.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

I stumbled upon this about a month or two ago. If you notice when he did his entrances during his later matches in Japan, he'd slap a select few people to 'instill courage' in them. I'd let him slap me.