Muhammad Ali 'Fight of the Century' Robe

The Fight of the Century

On March 8, 1971, two unbeaten heavyweights met at Madison Square Garden in New York. Joe Frazier was 26-0 with 23 knockouts and held the title. Muhammad Ali was 31-0 with 25 knockouts and had never lost it in the ring: it had been taken from him after he refused induction into the Army in 1967, and he had spent three and a half years unable to box. Between them they had 57 professional fights and 57 wins.

The fight split the country along the lines of the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, and it was priced like no fight before it. Each man was guaranteed $2.5 million. The Garden drew 20,455 people for a live gate of $1.5 million, ringside seats went for a record $150, and closed-circuit theaters sold about 2.59 million tickets. Frank Sinatra, unable to get a seat, worked the night as a photographer for Life magazine. Burt Lancaster did color commentary, and LeRoy Neiman sketched at ringside.

Ali controlled the early rounds with his jab and footwork, but he tired by the sixth. In the 11th, a Frazier left hook buckled his knees. In the 15th, another hook put him on the canvas; he was up at the count of four and finished on his feet. The judges scored it 9-6, 11-4 and 8-6-1, all for Frazier.

Why the robe was red

Ali's ring wardrobe had long run to black and white. For Frazier he chose red. In the March 4, 1971, issue of The New York Times he described the garment as 'a red and white king's robe.' It is red velvet, with a white satin belt, collar and trim, and 'Muhammad Ali' spelled across the back in white tackle twill. It carries no maker's label, which marks it as a custom creation.

After the loss, Ali told his entourage he believed abandoning his usual colors had been his mistake, and he never wore red again. That superstition is the reason this robe exists as a single, sharply defined artifact: it belongs to one night and one result.

Ali later signed the back in black marker, at a time when he could still produce a strong signature, and the robe has been matched to photographs and video of the ring walk.

From a cornerman's locker to the auction block

Drew 'Bundini' Brown joined Ali's team in 1963 and stayed through his career as cornerman, motivator and sometime speechwriter; he wrote the 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee' verse Ali used before the 1964 Sonny Liston fight. Brown died in September 1987. Many of the most important Ali ring items in collectors' hands, including trunks and gloves from the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manila, trace to the contents of his abandoned storage locker.

This robe is listed as inventory number 'RK8838' on the manifest of the 1988 sale of that locker, and it still carries the lot tag from that 1988 auction, its first public sale.

It later joined the collection of Troy Kinunen, who spent about 30 years assembling roughly 1,600 Ali pieces. He offered the collection at auction in July 2022, with the robe opening at $100,000 and press reports ahead of the sale suggesting it could bring $1 million. It sold on July 23, 2022, for $348,000. In the same sale, Ali's 1974 WBC championship belt from the Rumble in the Jungle sold for $6.18 million, a white robe from his 1977 Earnie Shavers fight for $87,000 and gloves from the 1976 Ken Norton fight for $63,000.

Kinunen framed the robe as a story about what came next: 'the robe represents the story of Ali's comeback, his motivation to fight Frazier twice more and defeat George Foreman and regain the world championship.'

The loss that made the legend

Three and a half months after the fight, on June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court unanimously overturned Ali's draft-evasion conviction in Clay v. United States. He beat Frazier in their January 28, 1974, rematch, took the title back from George Foreman in Zaire on October 30, 1974, and beat Frazier again in the Thrilla in Manila on October 1, 1975.

Ali finished with 56 wins, 37 by knockout, and 5 losses. The first of those losses is the one this robe walked into. As Ali himself put it, going down was never the problem: staying down was.

The numbers

Bout

Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali, March 8, 1971, Madison Square Garden, 15 rounds

Result

Frazier by unanimous decision (9-6, 11-4, 8-6-1)

Knockdown

Ali down from a Frazier left hook in round 15, up at the count of four

Records entering

Ali 31-0 (25 KO); Frazier 26-0 (23 KO)

Purses

$2.5 million each

Live gate

20,455 spectators, $1.5 million

Ali career

61 fights, 56 wins (37 KO), 5 losses

Timeline

1. Jan 17, 1942

   Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. is born in Louisville, Kentucky.

2. 1963

   Drew 'Bundini' Brown joins Ali's camp.

3. Apr 28, 1967

   Ali refuses induction into the Army in Houston; his boxing license is revoked.

4. Oct 26, 1970

   Ali returns to the ring against Jerry Quarry.

5. Mar 4, 1971

   Ali describes his outfit to The New York Times as 'a red and white king's robe.'

6. Mar 8, 1971

   Ali wears the robe into the ring at Madison Square Garden and loses to Joe Frazier by unanimous decision.

7. Jun 28, 1971

   The Supreme Court overturns Ali's conviction, 8-0.

8. Jan 28, 1974

   Ali beats Frazier in their rematch.

9. Oct 1, 1975

   Ali beats Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila.

10. Sep 24, 1987

    Bundini Brown dies in Los Angeles County.

11. 1988

    The robe is sold at auction from Brown's storage locker as inventory number 'RK8838,' its first public sale.

12. Jun 3, 2016

    Ali dies in Arizona at 74.

13. Jul 23, 2022

    The robe sells at auction for $348,000 from Troy Kinunen's Ali collection.

The world in 1971

• Jan 2, 1971

  A ban on cigarette advertising on U.S. radio and television takes effect.

• Jan 31, 1971

  Apollo 14 launches for the third crewed lunar landing.

• Mar 30, 1971

  The first Starbucks opens at Pike Place Market in Seattle.

• Jun 13, 1971

  The New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers.

• Jul 5, 1971

  The 26th Amendment is certified, lowering the voting age to 18.

• Aug 15, 1971

  President Nixon ends the convertibility of the dollar into gold.

• Oct 1, 1971

  Walt Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida.

• Nov 15, 1971

  Intel releases the 4004, the first commercially available microprocessor.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Muhammad Ali 'Fight of the Century' Robe is number 92 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (93 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Frank Sinatra could not get a ringside seat, so he shot the fight for Life magazine on a press credential.
• Ali blamed the color red for his first defeat and never wore it in the ring again.
• The robe has no maker's label at all; it was made to order.
• It surfaced from the storage locker of Bundini Brown, the cornerman who wrote 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.'
• Pre-sale talk put the robe near $1 million; it sold for $348,000.
• Actor Burt Lancaster called the fight on the broadcast.