Two pair of Muhammad Ali fight-worn gloves fetch $771,696
Two pair of Muhammad Ali fight-worn boxing gloves, one of which he wore in a 1964 fight against Sonny Liston and the other in a 1971 loss to Joe Frazier, went for a combined $771,696 in an auction that closed on Friday.
The estate of Angelo Dundee, the legendary ex-heavyweight champion's trainer, sold the gloves and other memorabilia. Part of the proceeds of the memorabilia sale, which went for more than $1.3 million, will benefit the Muhammad Ali Foundation. Another portion will go for the care of Dundee's daughter, Terri, who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis.
The two most popular items in the sale, handled by SCP Auctions, were the gloves. Ali, fighting for the heavyweight title against Liston under his birth name Cassius Clay, wore a pair of Frager gloves to stop Liston after seven rounds in Miami.
He wore Everlast gloves in his March 8, 1971, match in New York's Madison Square Garden against Frazier, which remains the most significant bout in boxing history. Frazier won that bout, punctuating his victory by knocking Ali down in the 15th and final round.
Each pair of the gloves sold for $385,848, which according to David Kohler, the president & CEO of SCP Auctions, is a world-record price for any piece of boxing memorabilia sold at public auction. However at Ali's 70th birthday celebration at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas earlier this year, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta paid $1.1 million for a pair of gloves Ali wore in a 1965 win over Floyd Patterson.
Kohler said the winning bidder of the gloves wished to remain anonymous.
