The gloves worn by Muhammad Ali when he beat Sonny Liston to win his first heavyweight crown will go on the auction block this weekend, three days before the fight's 50th anniversary.
The gloves, expected to fetch more than a quarter of a million dollars, were used by the then named Cassius Clay, to launch a legendary boxing career that made him a global sport icon.
Clay won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and four years later faced a heavily favored 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 of the heavyweight division and the second to defend the crown.
On February 25th, 1964, Clay stopped Liston in the seventh round to claim the crown.
The next day, Clay announced the he was changing his name, becoming Muhammad Ali and embracing the Islamic faith.
