Ali's gloves from Liston fight pack a punch at auction

The gloves Muhammad Ali wore when he beat Sonny Liston to win his first heavyweight world title fetched US$836,500 (Dh3 million) at auction on Saturday, almost 50 years to the day after the fight.

The gloves were part of Heritage Auctions’ Sports Platinum Night Auction, and the price was posted on their website. The buyer was not identified.

The gloves were used by the young fighter from Louisville, Kentucky, then named Cassius Clay, to launch a boxing career that made him a global figure.

Clay won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and four years later, faced a heavily favoured Liston at Miami Beach. Liston was coming off back-to-back first-round knockouts of Floyd Patterson, the first to end Patterson’s six-year reign in the heavyweight division and the second to defend the crown. But along came Clay, a brash and outspoken 22-year-old who taunted Liston.

On February 25, 1964, Clay stopped Liston in the seventh round to claim the crown, screaming as he jumped around the ring with his arms raised.

“I shook up the world,” said Clay, who the next day announced that he was changing his name to Muhammad Ali and embracing Islam.

Ali’s gloves were not the priciest items sold at the auction.

A baseball bat used by "Shoeless" Joe Jackson in his rookie season, 1911, fetched $958,000. A decade later, Jackson was banned for life for his part in throwing the 1919 World Series.

Also, the engraved pocket watch given to baseball's Babe Ruth in 1923, after the New York Yankees won their first World Series, sold for $717,000. It resurfaced only recently, decades after collectors believed it had been lost.

* Agence France-Presse