In 1966, the indomitable Muhammad Ali was at the height of his tremendous powers, undefeated and largely untested by the myriad of boxers who faced him in the ring. In the years preceding Ali’s use of these gloves, the “Louisville Lip” defeated several all-time greats, including Sonny Liston twice, Floyd Patterson, and George Chuvalo. These Baily’s Glastonbury gloves were used in training before Ali’s May 21st, 1966 fight against British legend Sir Harry Cooper in London. This was a rematch of Ali’s fight with Cooper in 1963, Ali’s final bout before he took on Sonny Liston in Miami. Ali won the first fight with Cooper by TKO in the fifth round at the young age of 21, in what would be his last fight before he could call himself a “World Champion”.

     The second fight with Cooper was more of the same, with the powerful Ali inflicting numerous cuts on Cooper’s scarred face, forcing the fight to end via TKO in the sixth round. This was Ali’s fourth title defense, and the mythic pugilist would go on to defend his title a staggering three more times before the end of 1966.

     These red leather, eight ounce boxing gloves were likely used for light training on bags or for speed work. They show wear consistent with boxing activities. The label for Baily’s Glastonbury is sewn on the elastic wristband, which shows evidence of sweat staining and soiling. Ali signed the top of each glove in black marker, adding the inscription “World Heavyweight Champion 1966”. His twin signatures present beautifully, and are stunning examples of an early career Ali signature. Cooper signed the top of each glove as well, however his signatures suffer from fading. These gloves come with a LOAs from noted boxing expert Craig Hamilton and WBC (MP46963) for training use, and two LOAs from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication (A04575, A04576) for the signatures.

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