These Fight Gloves Were Sold for $1.1 Million

Fight gloves are a very common thing, right? It is really an ordinary thing for a boxer. But what if I say, fight gloves are not at all an ordinary thing when it is sold for $1.1 million!

Are you thinking you have read it mistakenly? Or did I write it mistakenly? Then both of these thoughts are wrong. I have written absolutely right. We are now going to describe here these fight gloves, which were sold for $1.1million.

So, now let’s know which gloves I am talking about.

Fight Gloves Were Sold for $1.1Million

These mysterious gloves are none other than “The Greatest” Ali’s burgundy everlasting boxing gloves which were sold at $1.1 million. Are you thinking what was the specialty of these gloves thus it was sold in such a huge amount!

This is not ordinary gloves as it was worn by “The Greatest” Mohammad Ali in the historical match against Joe Frazier in 1965. This match is known as “The Fight of the Century” as it took place between two legendary boxers Mohammad Ali and Joe Fraizer.

Who is Mohammad Ali?

Mohammad Ali was one of the legendary American professional boxers. For his fame as a boxer, he took place in million hearts and was given the title “The Greatest.” At a time, he was a professional boxer, activist, and also philanthropist.

Mohammad Ali was born on January 17, 1942, and died on June 3, 2016. In his lifetime, he fought a total of 71 boxing matches. Among all his matches he won 56 and 37 of them were KO (knockout) matches. Mohammad Ali loses only 5 matches in this whole life.

Mohammad Ali achieves numerous awards and honors in his life, not only for his great performance in boxing but also for his contribution as a cultural icon. He showed the courage to challenge the United States government by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.

Records and Achievements of Mohammad Ali:

The Greatest Mohammad Ali won enormous achievements and records in his lifetime. Some of his best achievements are listed below:     

• Won National Amateur Athletic Union Championship 1959.
• Won Olympic 1960 Gold Medal in Light Heavyweight division.
• Won the World Heavyweight Championship three times.
• Fought the ‘Fight of The Century’ against Joe Fraizer. Again won ‘Thrilla in Manila’ against Fraizer.
• Beat the famous boxer George Foreman in ‘Rumble in Jungle’.
• Became an icon by refusing participation in the Vietnam War.
• Achieve ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’ in 2005.

The Fight of the Century

The fight was held in 1971 between two heavyweight champions of that time, Mohammad Ali and Joe Fraizer, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Frazier was another legendary American boxer and the WBC heavyweight champion at that time. When the historical match of Ali-Fraizer took place then, Frazier had an unbeatable winning record of 26-0, 23 KOs. At the same time, Ali had a winning record of 31-0, 25KOs.

As the match was held between two legendary unbeatable champions, this had a huge public interest. People were too eager to see who wins the match! Eventually, in this historic match between these two indomitable winners, Ali lost for the first time.

The gloves that Mohammad Ali wore in this historical match have also written a special chapter. Yes! These are the fight gloves that sold for $1.1million.

Now you may be wondering why and how it was for sale! So, let’s explore that event.

Auction for Ali’s Gloves

Ali’s gloves belonged to his former trainer Angelo Dundee. He purchased the gloves from the estate sale. But after Mohammad Ali’s death, for an unknown reason in 2016, he put it up for an auction. But before this event, Dundee did the most interesting thing.

Want to know what is that? Dundee had written the date and the result of the fight of the century (for which the gloves became famous) inside those gloves. Dundee had decided to use half of the money would gain by selling the gloves for the welfare of the Mohammad Ali Foundation.

The auction took place at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlantic City. As the auction was about the historical gloves belonging to “The Greatest” Mohammad Ali, it has also become a remarkable American history event. Many celebrities and fighters have attended the auction.

Everyone eagerly took part in the auction, and the bidding amount was getting very high. And finally, an anonymous bidder won the historical gloves by $1.1 million from that auction.

Who is This Anonymous Bidder?

In the event of the auction, there participated many renowned persons. Among them, the two prime contenders were Jerry Jones, owner of Dallas Cowboys, and Lorenzo Fertitta, co-owner of UFC.

As there were many competitors and everyone’s eye was on ‘The Greatest’ Ali’s gloves. When the amount is getting very high, Fertitta places the bid of an awe-inspiring amount of $750,000. But when the fact is ‘The Greatest’ Ali’s Gloves, then no one was there to give up so easily.

To overturn other contenders, Jerry Jones placed a bid of a great amount, which was $1million. So, are you thinking Jones won those gloves, and here is the end of the story? Not at all.

Putting the blindfold on a shelf, Fertitta surpassed Jerry’s bid and placed $1.1million bids. Fertitta also made everyone speechless; even Jerry Jones didn’t show the courage to bid again. And finally, creating history, Lorenzo Fertitta won those gloves for $1.1million.

Epilogue

Mohammad Ali was one the greatest among Muslim American boxers. His unorthodox boxing style made him different from others. It was said about him, “He floats like a butterfly; stings like a bee”.

Muhammad Ali won many people’s hearts, not only through his game but also through his various activities. There was no limit to the people’s enthusiasm for having the ownership of his gloves for his fame on that historic auction day. His contribution to boxing history will ever be remembered worldwide.