Eight pieces of gear used by legend Floyd Mayweather during his run to a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics are up for auction but with Mayweather claiming the goods were stolen from him years ago.
Goldin Auctions, one of the leading sports auction houses in the country, denies the items were stolen and has the pieces in its “2020 October Legends Auction” on its website with the Mayweather lots scheduled to close on Sunday night.
The auction of more than 4,200 lots also includes a rare example of the famed T206 Honus Wagner baseball card, a high-grade 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card and dozens of items that baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. consigned to the auction house from his career.
But for boxing aficionados the rare Mayweather gear, including trunks, tank tops and boots Mayweather used, stands out.
The items all date to Mayweather’s preparation for the 1996 Olympics and use during the Games. They include:
-- Red Adidas trunks Mayweather wore against Artur Gevorgyan during the Olympic tournament
-- A red USA tank top he wore against Gevorgyan
-- A fight-worn Olympic cover up used against Lorenzo Aragon in the Olympics
-- A blue fight-worn USA tank top used during the Olympics
-- His Olympic back-up trunks
-- His Olympic back-up USA tank top
-- Training-used trunks
-- Training-used shoes
The items had minimum bids of between $1,000 and $2,500. However, Mayweather said the items were stolen from him.
“The items were stolen, they were definitely stolen,” Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, told BoxingScene on Saturday after he said he spoke to Mayweather about the items in the auction. “I don’t know when exactly but obviously it was awhile ago, some years ago. Floyd just told me the items were stolen. He said, ‘My sh-- was stolen.’ He’s upset.”
Ellerbe said he planned to get in touch with Goldin Auctions on Sunday or Monday to discuss the issue.
“Floyd’s going to want to get his items back,” Ellerbe said. “He knows this stuff has been missing. He was aware the items were stolen. He wants to get them back.”
After being informed of Mayweather’s claims, Ken Goldin, the founder and CEO of Goldin Auctions, told BoxingScene that the items were not stolen but that he welcomed a call from Ellerbe.
Goldin said the items, all with letters of authenticity from leading boxing memorabilia dealer Craig Hamilton, came from the Grand Rapids, Michigan, home of Mayweather’s grandmother Bernice following her death in April 2018.
“The consigner is the owner of Lust Cleaning Services,” Goldin said. “The consigner’s company, Lust Cleaning Services, was called to clean out Floyd’s grandmother’s home after she passed away. They were told to trash certain items, that this stuff over here is garbage. They looked through those items and kept some things and consigned (the boxing material) to us. The items were not stolen. Floyd Mayweather never had possession of these items. I guess they didn’t mean much to him if it was at his grandmother’s house.
“But because I’m a worldwide auction house and I do things the right way, if somebody raises a claim we will put the items on hold after the auction and we will not ship them while we allow the powers that be to investigate the claim until it’s resolved.”
Two other pieces of Mayweather memorabilia -- the Olympic-used trunks Mayweather wore in his controversial semifinal loss to Serafim Todorov and a pair of Olympic-worn gloves -- were removed from the auction. They had not yet received bids and Goldin said he felt there was “a better place to auction them because they weren’t being appreciated” in the current auction.
Dan Rafael was ESPN.com's senior boxing writer for fifteen years, and covered the sport for five years at USA Today. He was the 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism.
