Blood-soaked boxing gloves worn by Muhammad Ali and Henry Cooper on sale for £75,000
Henry Cooper famously knocked down Muhammad Ali with his ‘hammer’ punch during the fourth round of their first bout at Wembley Stadium in 1963
Henry Cooper with American boxer Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) (Image: Getty Images)
The blood-soaked boxing gloves worn by Muhammad Ali and Henry Cooper in their ferocious rematch are on sale for £75,000 – as one of sport’s most macabre souvenirs.
Cooper famously knocked down Ali with his ‘hammer’ punch during the fourth round of their first bout at Wembley Stadium in 1963.
The American fighter – born Cassius Clay Jnr – came back at Cooper in the next round and the fight was stopped as a cut over the Brit boxer’s left eye worsened. Huge controversy surrounded the contest as Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee deliberately slashed his left-hand glove open to buy his dazed fighter more time.
The fighters met in a highly anticipated rematch in front of 46,000 spectators at Highbury Stadium in 1966. A better-prepared Ali showed no mercy, outclassing Cooper over six rounds before the bout was stopped after the Brit sustained another deep cut over his left eye.
Boxing promoter Jack Solomons gifted both pairs of gloves from the rematch to a wartime British Navy middleweight champion who passed them on to his son. They have since passed into the hands of a private collector who is selling the gloves at Heritage Auctions, of Dallas, Texas, US.
The red eight ounce gloves were made by Baily’s Glastonbury and Ali’s were marked ‘MA’. Ali’s gloves are covered in dark staining which is believed to be Cooper’s blood.
Prior to the first bout, Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, had crudely called Cooper a ‘tramp, a bum, and a cripple not worth training for’.
A Heritage Auctions spokesman said: “British fight fans believed that their fellow countryman Henry Cooper had been robbed of victory in his first meeting and that Angelo Dundee had intentionally damaged one of Ali’s gloves after a knockdown to buy his dazed fighter some extra time. So, despite the fact that he had become heavyweight champion – and Muhammad Ali – in the interim the 46,000 fans packed into London’s Highbury Stadium had high hopes of an upset as the pair re-engaged on May 21, 1966.
“But they watched the master in his absolute prime and wiser from the brief drama of the first bout. Cooper rarely found flesh at the terminus of his swings as Ali stuck and moved, ending the fight by inflicting a gaping wound over Cooper’s eye that forced the referee to wave off further combat in the sixth.”
Ali, who was undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1974 to 1978 and widely regarded as the greatest of all time, died in 2016 aged 74. Cooper, the only Brit boxer to receive a knighthood, died in 2011 aged 76.
The sale takes place on February 28.
