Mexico artisans handcraft gloves for boxing legends

Mexico City: In a boxing world often dominated by promoters, self-promoters and glitz — exhibit A, Mayweather vs McGregor — Alberto Reyes likes to do things the old-fashioned way: his company still makes gloves by hand, just as it did for Muhammad Ali.

The Mexican craftsman is the owner of Cleto Reyes boxing gloves, a family firm founded by his late father in the 1940s whose clients have included such legends as Ali, Manny Pacquiao and even the fictional Rocky Balboa.

Reyes likes to tell the story of the best publicity his company ever received, when it made the gloves for one of Ali’s last fights: his 1978 match to reclaim his heavyweight title from Leon Spinks.

It was the kind of free advertising that is hard to imagine in this age of mega-bouts like next month’s “Money Fight” between boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. And mixed martial artist Conor McGregor.

“They had a contract with a different company to supply the gloves, but Ali said, ‘I don’t fight if it’s not with Cleto gloves,’” Reyes, 65, said in his Mexico City office.

The fight promoters agreed to let Ali use his favourite gloves, on one condition, Reyes said: he had to put tape over the label.

But once inside the ring, the fighter known as “The Greatest” asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to take off the tape.

The photo of a sweatdrenched Ali fending off a punishing swing from Spinks — the name “Cleto Reyes” visibly stamped on his glove — was published around the world after the former champ, then aged 36, seized back the heavyweight title belt from his 25-year-old opponent.

PRIDE AND CRAFT

Alberto Reyes says the company has never paid a fighter to wear its gloves.

“They use them because they feel safe, because they know they’re going to score a knockout,” he said.

The firm’s artisans start by selecting the best-quality leather.

Then they painstakingly cut it, sew it and stuff it with foam and horsehair.

It is an old-school exercise in craft, using oldfashioned sewing machines.

A professional pair of Cleto Reyes gloves costs 1,380 pesos ($75).

“They’re comfortable on the hands, which take less damage,” said toptier trainer Ignacio Beristain, who has coached Mexican champions including Juan Manuel Marquez and Ricardo Lopez.