Mitsuyo Maeda was one of the finest judoka that ever lived and helped spread the art outside of Japan. Known as Conde Koma (Count Combat), he is said to have fought in two thousand no-holds-barred fights and was so successful, many see him as the ‘toughest man who ever lived’. When he emigrated to Brazil, he taught his art to Carlos Gracie who along with his brother Helio, would go on to develop Brazilian jiu-jitsu by adapting what they had been taught by Maeda, who is also often referred...

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering it will be happier!” 

On June 26, 1976, Muhammad Ali engaged in a battle with Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki in a fight that was billed as being a competition to find the toughest man on the planet. It is unclear whether or not the result was fixed beforehand, though both camps maintain that the fight was real.