Heritage Auctions is listing the gloves from the 1965 fight as a single lot with a starting bid of $500,000 (£330,000/€440,000) in the Sports Collectibles Platinum Night auction, due to take place in New York City on February 21 and 22.

Both pairs of gloves were also signed by Ali to celebrate the fight's 30th anniversary in 1995.

"It's not out of line to place these gloves among the most important pieces of memorabilia to ever come to market," Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage, said.

"These transcend sports.

"The drama and outrage that swirled around the Ali-Liston fights were a microcosm of America's growing pains of the mid-1960s."

The phantom punch fight was over in less than two minutes when Liston was apparently knocked out by Ali in Lewiston, Maine.

However, footage of the match does not explicitly show whether Ali's quick right hand actually connected and photos of the fight show Ali standing over his opponent yelling at him to get up and fight.

The gloves were seized by the boxing commissioner of Maine, George Russo, following the controversial match and were later bought by collector Seth Erstoff.

Heritage Auctions believe the gloves are "among the most important pieces of memorabilia to ever come to market" ©Getty Images


They are accompanied by a letter of provenance that reads: "In 1965, my uncle...was the boxing commissioner for the State of Maine.

"The Ali-Liston fight was very controversial because of the knockout which Liston suffered in the first round.

"As a result of the controversy...with the authority vested in him by the State of Maine as the State Boxing Commissioner, [he] seized the boxing gloves worn by both Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston."

Erstoff said he has put the gloves up for sale to coincide with the golden anniversary of the bout on May 25 and hopes a museum will buy them.

The record sale price for a piece of boxing memorabilia currently stands at $836,500 (£556,000/€737,000), paid for the gloves worn by Ali during his first fight with Liston in 1964.

The auction also includes an Oslo 1952 Winter Olympic Games Torch, which starts bidding at $25,000 (£16,000/€22,000), and a number of items from late United States Olympic gold medal winning ice hockey coach Herb Brooks, such as his Lake Placid 1980 "Miracle on Ice" Olympic ring, which starts at $17,000 (£11,000/€15,000), and his training sweatsuit, whistle and stopwatch from the same Games, which starts at $3,000 (£1,900/€2,600).

The auction catalogue can be seen here. 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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