Phew! The infamous split boxing glove from Muhammad Ali's 1963 fight is hitting the auction block

A Somerset auctioneer is selling what he believes is one of the most famous sports memorabilia in history: the infamous split boxing glove from Muhammad Ali's 1963 fight with Henry Cooper.

The leather glove achieved legendary status after Cooper knocked Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, to the ground with a powerful left hook. The fight is the first of only four fights in which Ali was officially knocked out by his opponent in the boxing ring. The knockdown came as a surprise considering Ali had publicly smeared Cooper before the fight. After Ali hit the tarpaulin floor of the ring, his trainer Angelo Dundee is said to have deepened a tear in the glove to give his boxer additional recovery time while a replacement glove was found. Cooper's left hook was nicknamed “Enry's Bunting” in honor of his fourth-round blow to Ali.

Stuart Bull of Stuart Bull Auctions set an estimate of £300,000-500,000 ($401,190-$668,650). Online lotwhich ends on October 31st. He hopes it could actually fetch between 4 and 6 million pounds ($5,349,200 and $8,023,800), given its provenance and his belief that the market for sports memorabilia is booming, particularly after Ali's death.

A similar pair of gloves, supposedly from the same fight, was previously sold by Christie's in 2001 for £37,600 ($50,282). However, Bull believes his auction house has the real left glove. To prove this, he boasts a 65-page dossier of documents compiled from over 3,000 hours of research.

The glove, signed by Henry Cooper, was made by the Glastonbury leather tannery Baily's on behalf of the British Boxing Board of Control. After the fight, the glove was reportedly returned to Baily's for inspection, where it remained in storage. The right glove is currently believed to belong to the Qatari royal family.

The shorts worn by Muhammad Ali in his legendary “Thrilla in Manila” boxing match drew bids as high as $3.8 million before sales were suspended. Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images.

Earlier this year Sotheby's was preparing to hold an auction of Ali's white satin boxing trunks from his “Thrilla in Manila” fight, when he was recognized as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. The selling price for the pair of Everlast shorts was estimated at $4 million to $6 million, but the sale was suspended before bidding was complete.

It's true that there is no shortage of interest in sports memorabilia, especially when it has a good backstory. In August of this year, a sports jersey worn by Babe Ruth during his infamous “called shot” of the 1932 World Series, described by an auction house specialist as his equivalent of the “Mona Lisa,” sold for a whopping $24.12 million auctioned at Heritage Auctions. This makes it the most valuable sports collector's item in the world. In 2022, the game-winning jersey that Michael Jordan wore in Game 1 of the NBA Finals sold for $10.1 million, and in December, Sotheby's will host an auction titled “The GOAT Collection: Watches and Treasures From Tom Brady” go live.