Mohammed Ali- Sonny Liston Phantom Punch Gloves Sold For Nearly $1 million

The gloves worn by Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston in their 1965 rematch were expected to fetch upward of $1 million at auction in February.

The boxing gloves Muhammad Ali wore when he won the world heavyweight championship for the first time sold at auction for $956,000 on Saturday night.

Both pairs of gloves from the May 25, 1965, bout in Lewiston, Maine -- won by Ali with a first-round knockout from what some saw as a "phantom punch"

Footage of the fight does not make it clear whether Ali's quick right hand actually connected, and many fans booed. Even the most famous photos of the fight show an enraged Ali standing over Liston as he lay on the canvas, gesturing and yelling at him to get up and fight.

Given the controversial way the bout ended, the boxers' gloves were seized by George Russo, the boxing commissioner for Maine. The gloves remained in the Russo family until they were purchased several years ago by a California collector who is now selling them.

"The fight is one of the most, if not the most, controversial happenings in sports history. It's still not solved today," said Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale. "It's one of those things people discuss like the 1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal. One of those controversial moments that is often coveted by memorabilia collectors."

There have been many theories about what exactly happened: Did Liston, an ex-con known as the Big Bear, throw the fight because he was in debt to the mob? Or did Ali actually deliver a perfectly landed punch?

The Lewiston rematch was the first bout in which Ali stepped into the ring as Muhammad Ali after converting to Islam. He was still Cassius Clay a year earlier when he won the championship from Liston in Miami. His glove from that bout so

"Ali's social influence is unrivaled among anyone," said Seth Ersoff, a Los Angeles producer who is selling the gloves from the Lewiston rematch. "These gloves are the turning point of it all, when Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali."

Ersoff said he had coveted owning the "phantom punch" gloves for years but could never track them down until Frank Stallone, Sylvester Stallone's brother, told him where he could get them and introduced him to Robert Russo, the nephew who inherited the set from his uncle.

With the upcoming golden anniversary of the bout, it seemed like the right moment "to put them up and see what happens," he said. Ideally, he would love to see a museum purchase them.

Ali signed both pairs of gloves when he came to Lewiston in 1995 to celebrate the fight. The Heritage Auction took place almost 50 years to the day, Feb. 25, 1964, after Ali -- then known as Cassius Clay -- shook the world by stopping Sonny Liston, who quit on his stool after the sixth round in Miami Beach, Fla.