Considered one of the greatest boxers in the history of the sport, Joe Frazier reigned as heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973, fending off a challenge from Muhammad Ali at the world-famous Fight of the Century, held at Madison Square Garden in 1981. With an brutal and unpretentious fight style, topped off with a mean left hook, Frazier's fight style made him a feared opponent for anyone who stepped into the ring with him.

This specimen is a piece of a heavyweight bag glove owned by Joe Frazier and used in his training. It was signed in 1990, the year he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. The glove was part of a personal collection for several years before being acquired by Mini Museum.

Fragments of the leather from this glove have been prepared for your collection by the team at our workshop. Each specimen measures ~1 square centimeter.

All specimens are enclosed in an acrylic specimen jar with a removable top which arrives in a handsome, glass-topped riker box case measuring 4x3x1".

It comes complete with an 4x3" informational card that includes the Mini Museum Seal of Authenticity. A small card is also inside the case, allowing you to customize your display.

Strong, relentless, and with a brutal left hook to back up his ego, boxer Joe Frazier was the undisputed heavyweight champion between 1970 and 1973. Born in 1944 to sharecroppers in Beaufort, South Carolina, Frazier turned to boxing to escape his family’s poverty, moving to Philadelphia at 15. He won three Golden Gloves heavyweight championships in a row and took home the gold medal at the 1964 Olympics. From there, Frazier worked his way up the heavyweight division.

Some of Frazier’s most famous fights are his three bouts with Muhammad Ali, beginning in 1971’s Fight of the Century at Madison Square Garden. By then, Frazier was the accepted heavyweight champion, but Ali had also held the title before being barred from the sport. Their fight would determine once and for all who was the legitimate champion. Going into the fight, oddsmakers favored Frazier 7-5, but Frazier and everyone else knew Ali was a wildcard. Could the former champ stage a comeback after his long exile?

The fight came in the midst of the political maelstrom of the day: with the war in Vietnam and the upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement. A divided nation found in Frazier and Ali avatars for their respective political causes. In Ali was the radical, the Nation of Islam acolyte who had been barred from professional boxing for three years after his refusal to be drafted into the army. Though Frazier was not as political, conservative boxing fans rallied behind him, hoping to see the audacious Ali bested.

That said, the rivalry between Frazier and Ali was not simply a creation of the political climate. The ever-confident Ali derided Frazier as an Uncle Tom, a pawn of the white establishment, one that he would easily beat in the ring. Frazier in turn considered Ali a loudmouth, one he was determined to shut up. The threats did not come from just the boxers themselves. By the time of the match, both fighters had received numerous death threats, and even the Garden itself had been threatened to be bombed.

To ensure security, 280 police officers were assigned to the venue, with 150 more off-duty cops hired by management. Bomb threats or not, no one was going to miss the fight. In attendance that night was Hubert Humphrey, Ted Kennedy, Gene Kelly, Norman Mailer, and Frank Sinatra, with Burt Lancaster providing color commentary. Joining them were thousands of other spectators in the Garden, with millions more watching the live broadcast at home or in theaters. Never had a boxing match commanded so much public attention.

At 10:40 PM that night, Frazier and Ali were introduced to the massive crowd and the fight began. Using his nimble, fluid style and his three-inch height advantage, Ali claimed the first five rounds handily, but as the fight progressed, Frazier turned the tide. Again and again, Frazier’s killer left hook found Ali’s jaw, eventually putting him to the ground in the 15th round. Ali beat the count and got back to his feet, but Frazier still triumphed, winning by unanimous decision. Ali refused to accept the ruling, but the results were still the same: two of the greatest boxers of all time had faced off, and Frazier had come out on top.

Frazier reigned as champ for nearly two years, handily dispacting challengers Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, but he found his match in George Foreman in their 1973 fight, the Sunshine Showdown, held in Kingstown, Jamaica. Seeking the return of his title, Frazier squared off against Hungarian boxer Joe Bugner, before setting his sights on a rematch with Ali in 1974. A few days before the fight, during a taping of ABC's Wide World of Sports, Frazier and Ali traded harsh words and a few blows in the studio. It seemed that the old rivalry was inflamed again. This time, however, Ali bested Frazier, winning Superfight II.

The next year, the pair met one last time for the Thrilla in Manila, held in the Philippines. In the sweltering heat, Frazier and Ali nearly killed each other across 14 grueling rounds before Frazier’s cornerman Eddie Futch threw in the towel. Frazier was bested, but in his three fights with Ali, his faceoffs with Foreman, and all his other fights, his brutal fighting style shone through, and he remains one of the greatest boxers in the history of the sport.