Rules were the biggest problem for this match. Especially after Ali's guys saw Inoki's sparring, they had a strong atttitude to threaten Inoki's side that they would boycott the match unless the restrictions are added with their requests. Inoki was forced to fight under a lot of restrictions.

Before the match, the rules weren't explained to the audience. If rules were recognized by the audience, the match might be evaluated in differently.

It was a problem that they didn't agree with the rules until the last minute, but more than that, the fact was that Inoki was not able to do much under these rules. So, they could not publically announce the rules