Muhammad Ali delivered the final knockout of his career in 1976 with a little bit of help from martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
Two years prior, ‘The Greatest’ scored an eighth-round knockout against George Foreman to claim the heavyweight title in their iconic ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ encounter. A year later, Ali went on to defeat Joe Frazier in the ‘Thrilla in Manilla’ trilogy fight.
’76 would see Ali defend his title three times against lesser-known opponents, one of them expected to be European champion Bernd August in Munich, Germany.
However, British and Commonwealth champion Richard Dunn had plans of his own.
Dunn, a part-time boxer who regularly worked as a scaffolder and often couldn’t afford to hire sparring partners, was matched up with August who was expected to walk through Dunn with relative ease. Instead, Dunn delivered the fight of his life, scoring a third-round TKO against August to claim the European title and take the German’s spot against Ali.
Dunn became a celebrity overnight, but Ali was far from impressed with the Brit.
“I don’t care if it is the northpaw, southpaw, eastpaw, or westpaw, it ain’t going to matter what paw you are when I get you,” Ali famously said ahead of their scrap.
While Dunn delivered a solid effort, he ultimately came up short against Ali, suffering a fifth-round KO.
Muhammad Ali Reveals Where He Learned the ‘AccuPunch’
The final knockdown came when Dunn was met by a lightning-fast short right hand which Ali later revealed he’d been taught by taekwondo grandmaster Jhoon Rhee.
Rhee described the maneuver as the ‘AccuPunch’ and claimed that he’d learned it from Bruce Lee, which aroused Ali’s interest.
The idea behind the ‘AccuPunch’ was for it to be an incredibly fast shot based on human reaction time and executed so quickly that it had already landed before the opponent’s brain could even attempt to block it.
Though Ali never divulged the full secrets of the technique, he said:
“It acts at the exact moment you decide to hit, and there is no lag time at all. It is instantaneous. It moves at tremendous speed with no warning and accelerates like a bullet in flight. You can hardly see it.”
Bruce Lee v. Muhammad Ali: What if? Now available in Vintage Black —> https://t.co/UvfnkWHgKJ pic.twitter.com/leeM7kW19i
— Bruce Lee (@brucelee) November 10, 2017
To his credit, Dunn was able to climb back to his feet after absorbing the blow, but couldn’t get his unsteady legs in order, prompting the referee to stop the fight.
Ali would go on to fight seven more times before hanging up his gloves, but Dunn would prove to be the final knockout of his iconic career.
