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Muhammad Ali vs. Richard Dunn was a professional boxing match contested on 24 May 1976, for the undisputed heavyweight championship.^[1]

Background

In the build up to fight, Dunn appeared on the popular ITV program This Is Your Life in which Ali appeared via video message to taunt Dunn, saying "So you've taken 67 parachute drops, well, I want you to mark this down now: you have one more big drop to come, a big hard drop, it's going to be the longest sharp drop you've ever had."^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

The fight

Dunn would start the fight on the front foot chasing Ali who would land a number of overhand rights early. A pair of lefts from Dunn landed in third however Ali scored knockdown with a right later in round. Dunn would taste the canvas twice more in fourth and once early in fifth before a windmilling right from Ali sent Dunn down for the fifth and final time prompting referee Herbert Tomser to wave the contest off.^[7]

The fight is remembered for being the last time Ali would knock down any opponent in the ring in his boxing career.^[8] The punch Ali used to knockout Dunn was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch", he learnt it from Bruce Lee. Rhee was Ali's head coach for this Dunn fight.^[9]

Aftermath

Ali would praise Dunn, telling NBC broadcast: “He is better than I thought and I predict you will hear more from Richard Dunn.”

Tens of thousands of people would line the streets of Bradford to praise Dunn’s gutsy performance and welcome him home.

Undercard

Confirmed bouts:^[10]

Broadcasting

Country	Broadcaster
United Kingdom	ITV[11]
United States	NBC

References