On the eve of Mike Tyson’s controversial fight with the YouTuber Jake Paul, here are five other memorable oddities

George Foreman v the Toronto five
In 1975 the former heavyweight champion Foreman takes on five opponents on the same afternoon in bouts of three three-minute rounds each in Toronto. Muhammad Ali is ringside providing withering putdowns for the ABC television network six months on from their colossal “Rumble in the Jungle”. Foreman, who is attempting to rebuild his reputation, takes on respectable fighters in Alonzo Johnson, Pedro Agosto, Mac Foster, Terry Daniels and Boone Kirkman. To a background of booing, Foreman wins the lot. “I’d put on a show. I’d fought five guys, and I’d made it through. It was a big victory for me,’ he says afterwards.

Muhammad Ali v Antonio ‘The Pelican’ Inoki
Nine months on from his third and final fight against Joe Frazier, the “Thrilla in Manila”, Ali has been busy boxing stooges such as the Yorkshireman Richard Dunn in Munich. So in June 1976 he travels to Tokyo and takes on the gigantic Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki for a cool $6m, contesting the title of “Toughest Man on the Planet” at a soldout Budokan. Ali has a less than complimentary nickname for Inoki – “The Pelican” because of his big bullseye chin – and what follows is 15 rounds of pure slapstick as Inoki lays flat on the canvas offering only kicks and Ali, leaping out of the way, throws just six punches.