THE SCRIPT said the young, 6ft 7ins German with the cover star looks and the fashionably flowing locks would win the European title and then challenge Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight championship in his home country.
“They forgot to tell me,” said the older, no-frills Yorkshireman with the craggy face and thick sideburns, and then he set about battering the 23-year-old to not only take the title but also his shot at the Greatest of All Time.
“Bernd August had the money men behind him,” says Richard Dunn, “but he had my fists in front of him.”
It had indeed all been set up for August to win. While the match was staged in London, he was the “home” fighter in every sense bar location. This was supposed to be his showcase; an advertisement to promote him as a challenger to Ali.
“Half the crowd were cheering him because he were a young, handsome lad,” recalls Dunn, 48 years later. “But to be quite truthful, I knew there were no way on God’s Earth he could beat me.”
Dunn’s reading of it proved more accurate than that of the money men, as he romped to a one-sided, third-round stoppage win. Yet it had been considered such a formality that August would beat Dunn that the date and location of Ali v August had already been announced: May 24, 1976, in Munich – just seven weeks later.
Yes, seven
