Muhammad Ali gloves up for auction
— -- A pair of gloves worn by Muhammad Ali in his first heavyweight championship fight have hit the auction block again.
Ali -- named Cassius Clay at the time -- wore the gloves in his bout against Sonny Liston on Feb. 25, 1964. They were originally bought in an auction from the estate sale of Ali's former trainer Angelo Dundee in Dec. 2012 for $385,848.
"Baseball has Babe Ruth, basketball has Jordan and boxing has Ali," said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage, the auction house that will sell the gloves to the highest bidder on Feb. 22. "This a great piece of history."
Ivy didn't say why the original buyer of the gloves decided to consign them to his auction, but Ivy believes the collector will get a return on his investment after buying them a little more than a year ago. Bidding on the gloves has already hit $170,000 and Ivy said he expects to get at least $500,000 for them.
The record for the highest price paid for a pair of Ali gloves was $1.1 million, the price UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta paid for a pair gloves worn by Ali in a 1965 title fight against Floyd Patterson. Fertitta, who won the gloves at Ali's 70th birthday gala in Feb. 2012, also received one of the original posters used to promote the fight.
The brand of gloves being auctioned were made by former boxer Sammy Frager, who sold boxing gloves to the greats including Ali, Joe Louis, Max Baer and James Braddock.
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