Auction Heavyweight

They came from all over the globe Sunday to buy a piece of one of the greatest boxers on Earth.

Scores of collectors, investors and just plain sports fans dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars at a Beverly Hills auction house to own something, almost anything, linked to Muhammad Ali.

And there was plenty to choose from.

There were fight posters, boxing photographs, old shoes, sweaty shorts and worn gloves--from his early days as a Golden Glove amateur named Cassius Clay Jr. to his past-prime fighting years in the early 1980s.

There was his letter to the director of Selective Service seeking a draft exemption on the grounds that he was a “minister of religion” with the Nation of Islam; that fetched $55,000. The official boxing application he signed for the 1964 fight against Sonny Liston was snapped up for $18,000. And his trademark white satin “Everlast” trunks went for a nifty $50,000.

Not to mention the shaving cream, gourmet cookies, shoe polish, a toy action figure of the champ and roach traps that Ali--also one of the greatest salesmen of all time--endorsed and helped to peddle.

The irony is that this was one sale Ali didn’t want to happen.

He had no association with the event at Christie’s auction house, did not benefit from the sales and apparently was not pleased that it took place.

His disapproval apparently didn’t deter his fans or affect the bidding.

“There’s nobody like him. He’s the biggest sports icon around,” said David Kobylinski, who flew in from New York so he could buy a cigarette that was signed by then-Olympic heavyweight champion Cassius Clay. Ali--who as a Muslim disapproves of smoking--plucked it out of a sportswriter’s mouth decades ago.

“I plan on keeping it for a while,” the 29-year-old security consultant said after successfully bidding $1,900 for the Winston cigarette. “This would be one expensive smoke.”

The most coveted item on the block was a robe, embroidered with African designs, that Ali wore when he took the ring in Zaire against George Foreman in the epic 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” bout, in which Ali scored a stunning victory to reclaim the world heavyweight title.

An anonymous buyer won the robe with a telephone bid of $140,000, tax and commission not included.

The collection of Ali memorabilia was put up for auction by Ronnie Paloger, a 48-year-old garment industry executive from Marina del Rey who said Ali became his hero when he stood up to the U.S. government and refused to join the Army during the Vietnam War.

But Ronald A. DiNicola, Ali’s attorney, said in a statement last week that his client could not “verify the authenticity” of any of the items. Furthermore, he said, only a small number of the items at the auction were ever in the boxer’s possession, and that some “were taken from Mr. Ali under circumstances which he did not approve, without his permission or without his knowledge.”

Ali, who still retains a majority of his documents pertaining to his career, which he soon plans to display for the public, told one reporter that some of items were stolen from him. Christie’s officials said they held title to all of the items that were auctioned.

Mohammed MuBarak, an artist who said he is a friend of Ali, attended the auction but called it a “travesty.”

“If I had the money, I’d buy it all and give it right back to him,” MuBarak said.

Most others, however, did not share such feelings.

Many said they grew up watching Ali fight and wanted to own a piece of memorabilia and a part of a man they respected as an athlete and a person.

“There hasn’t been a fighter born that could compare to him,” said Dan Ceniceros, a Los Angeles sports memorabilia collector and dealer. “This a chance for the average Joe to live out his dreams and have a piece of history.”

Marcia Wilson Hobbs, chairman of Christie’s Los Angeles, said she was “very pleased” with the results of the event, which brought in $1,321,905. The event attracted bidders from England, France, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and other countries.

“We had some really spirited bidding wars,” Hobbs said. “A lot of our buyers appear to be of this generation and grew up watching him. He is our history. Our icon.”

Robert Chaney, a 39-year-old venture capitalist from Houston, agreed.

“Muhammad Ali was probably one of the three greatest athletes of the century, along with Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan,” said Chaney, who paid $50,000 for the trunks Ali wore when he fought Foreman. “This is a chance to get a world-class piece from the world’s greatest fighter.”

After the daylong auction, Paloger reviewed his bittersweet emotions.

“I was remembering where I got that certain piece. I was remembering the hunt. I was remembering the challenge of putting this collection together.

“And Ali,” Paloger said. “I thought about Ali a lot. He’s still my hero. He’s still the greatest.”