Paul Jancha, former attorney to boxing great Muhammad Ali, is selling more than 300 signed items of memorabilia, trading cards, boxing gloves, rare items and unseen photos collected over years of friendship and business partnership. A Cassius Clay-signed boxing ticket from his 1970 heavyweight championship bout with Oscar Bonavena is considered to be one of the most valuable items. Ali changed his name years earlier.
The online auction is happening now and is coordinated by AuctionMonthly.com, a Northern California-based auction and consignment company that specializes in sports antiquities. The same company previously helped a Sacramento man sell hundreds of vintage baseball cards found hidden away in his late father’s closet.
Jancha, who provided a background of his career and friendship with Ali to Auction Monthly, met the boxing legend around 1990 in Berrien County, Michigan, where Ali laid down roots about a decade after he laced up his gloves for the final time. Personal photos of Ali give a glimpse into his post-boxing career and the simplicity of his civilian life, many of which were taken at Jancha’s home alongside members of his family.
“Muhammad would often come to my home to spend time with me and my wife and my son,” Jancha wrote. “I would take Muhammad Ali to the Berrien County Courthouse in St. Joseph, where we would go all through the entire four floors of the Berrien County court building so that he could greet people and demonstrate his magic tricks.”
Ali was a lover of magic and even hired a personal magician to teach him sleight-of-hand tricks and illusions, according to a 2016 profile in Vox.
Jancha represented Ali in various business dealings, including securing a deal with the NFL to wear the league’s clothing, attend Super Bowl events and meet some of football’s biggest stars.
“We attended a meeting relating to the formation of the ‘Quarterback Club’ and met many of the most famous quarterbacks that ever played the game,” Jancha wrote. “Many of these famous quarterbacks were waiting in the room to meet Muhammad. When I went in that room with Muhammad to meet them, the quarterbacks were like kids.”
Among the items available at auction are signed NFL footballs and photos of Ali wearing NFL gear.
Jancha was also in close contact with Ali when he infamously traveled to Iraq in 1990, against the wishes of then-president George H.W. Bush, and helped free 15 hostages who were being held by the Hussein regime. The Gulf War would start only a few short weeks later.
“During that time, I communicated with United States Officials as well as officials of the government of Iraq,” Jancha said. “I was there for Mohammed when he returned with the hostages and, as a result of his insistence, I was allowed to meet with him in private before we entered the public press area where I spoke on Muhammad’s behalf before the world.”
Ali died on June 3, 2016, and Jancha and his wife were in attendance at his funeral, as well as a private event held afterward with only close family and friends.
“I truly believe that the opportunity I had to meet Muhammad Ali and become his dear friend was a gift from God,” Jancha wrote. “Now when I think of Muhammad Ali, I think of God and when I think of God, I think of Muhammad Ali.”
The online auction began Sunday and items will remain open for bidding for one week. Multiple duplicate items will be auctioned at a later date, officials for Auction Monthly said.
