MMA
Biaggio Ali Walsh takes the family name to a different path of struggle
Biaggio Ali at the 2022 PFL Championship weigh-ins at The Modern Yorker Hotel in Modern York. (Photo by Matt Davies/PxImages/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
When you’re the grandson of “The Greatest,” it’s assumed that you’ll eventually hit the gym wearing boxing gloves. However, Biaggio Ali Walsh was never under such pressure when he and his brother Nico visited Muhammad Ali.
And that was the point… Ali was not an internationally beloved icon for them. He was a cold grandpa who did magic tricks and drew pictures while they watched movies together. However, as the brothers grew older, they began to realize that the former heavyweight champion was not like their other grandparents.
“When I was in third grade, I did a project on him and no one in the class knew who I was or anything like that,” Biaggio said. “But I did a project on him so I could get to know my grandfather better. I knew he wasn’t like other grandparents. He was a huge icon and a huge inspiration and influence on people’s lives, so at a newborn age I had an idea, but as the years went by and I started to get older, I started to really realize who he was and what kind of person he was. the impact he had.”
Now the 24-year-old son of Robert Walsh and Rasheda Ali is more than aware of his grandfather and what he meant to the world during his 74 years here. To say Ali set a bar that may never be reached in boxing, sports and international life would be an understatement, so imagine what it would be like to be a grandson starting the same job as him.
Rasheda Ali-Walsh with her sons, Biaggio (left) and Nico, while accepting the Caesars Palace Icon Award for her father, the behind schedule Muhammad Ali, in 2016. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Caesars Palace)
Nico, now 22, is 7-0 with five knockouts in his professional career, which began in 2021. Biaggio never saw boxing as his path.
“I didn’t feel what he felt,” Biaggio told Sports Illustrated in 2017 about his early days with Nico at the boxing gym when they were kids. However, he was an athlete and liked being in the spotlight. The Bishop Gorman High School return star and model who has appeared in Vogue Italia, among others, when she was punched in the face wasn’t on his priority list, but even then, his name painted a neon target on his comeback.
“I knew it would be a part of life in whatever field I was in,” he said. “If I played tennis, they would want to beat me just because of who I am related to. So in everything I do, I will bring out the best in anyone who tries to compete with me. I’m used to this. I was born with this type of pressure and I just like to normalize the situation to deal with it.
Ali Walsh played college football, but when it ended, he was 21 and had no clear idea of what would come next. He began working as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at a Las Vegas facility, but knew he was still newborn enough to be a participant, not a spectator.
“In everything I do, I will bring out the best in anyone who tries to compete with me. I’m used to it.”
“The fighters and athletes I worked with, many of them were in Xtreme Couture, who I already knew,” said Ali Walsh of the gym where some top mixed martial arts fighters train. “So I watched them train as athletes, I was a coach, and I thought, ‘Why am I training?’ I’m still newborn. I could do it too. I miss being an athlete.”
His friend told him to go to a kickboxing class. That was it. He began to feel the same way about MMA that Nico felt about boxing.
“I thought, ‘You know what, I’ll just give it my all. I’ll do my best now so that I won’t regret later in life and think to myself: what if I tried, would I be a good fighter? I’m afraid I’ll have questions like this when I’m older. Then I flipped the switch and thought, “You know what, now I want to win.”
On Friday, Ali Walsh was at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden when won his third amateur MMA fight, defeating Tom Graesser; it’s the same building where his grandfather and brother fought. He’s still getting stronger in the sport, but he’s evolving with each fight and he loves the process.
Would his grandfather appreciate this sport if he were still here?
“Honestly, I think he would be a huge fan,” Ali Walsh said. “There are a lot of very, very talented players and entertaining talkers and I think he would really enjoy the sport.”
Some say Ali pioneered MMA with his 1976 fight against Japanese pro wrestling icon Antonio Inoki. One of his daughters, Hana, married UFC veteran Kevin Casey, so there is another family connection. Ali Walsh would love to employ all this information in her own journey. Sure, there will be skeptics, just like Nico as he climbs the ladder in boxing, but once the world gets to know them, fans will want to root for them because these are truly two of the best newborn men you will ever coach in the combat sports business.
It’s a testament to the work their parents put into raising them, as well as a lot of love and good advice from someone they had to share with the world. Biaggio laughs when I ask what they think and explains that even though Ali was the most recognizable man on Earth, when they were together, he was just a grandfather.
“With Parkinson’s disease, it was harder for him to communicate, but in the mornings when he took his medication, he was very communicative,” he said. “He almost spoke as if he didn’t have Parkinson’s at all. So we took advantage of it this morning. We would sit down, talk to him, and spend time with him that way.
“But as a little kid, I looked up to him as my grandfather, and when I was a little older, when I saw him, I held his hand and thought, ‘That’s the hand that knocked out George Foreman.’ .’ (laughter) So there was a little gray area where I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s an icon,’ and then he was just my grandfather.”
Even with 10 consecutive wins inside the Octagon, UFC interim featherweight champion Max “Blessed” Holloway never had the opportunity to fight for the undisputed championship.
That will all change on Saturday when Holloway faces UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo in a unification fight at UFC 212 at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This will be only the second time in his career that Holloway will headline a pay-per-view card, but he is extremely confident of entering enemy territory in pursuit of his lifelong dream.
“I’ve been in the spotlight in my career, I’ve had a five-round fight outside the UFC and I’m ready for anything,” Holloway said during a recent conference call.
“I’m just ready to show the world what I’m about and why I’m the best fighter in this division.”
“Blessed” has finished seven opponents in his 10-fight winning streak, including a TKO over former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis to become interim champion.
Holloway and Aldo are two of the best all-around strikers in MMA today, but there aren’t many other similarities both inside and outside the Octagon. What they have in common, however, is that their last defeat came against UFC’s most recognizable star, “Notorious” Conor McGregor.
For Holloway, losing to McGregor four years ago was a good thing. He regrouped, became a more complete fighter and put together one of the greatest winning streaks in UFC history.
However, despite his incredible success at the championship level over the past few years, the UFC has been reluctant to put its hype machine behind Holloway, much to the surprise of many in the media and fans.
Even with this lack of pressure, Holloway is very excited to reign supreme in a division that has only had two undisputed champions in its compact history.
“I just can’t wait to do the damn thing; get in there and fight one of the best of all time,” Holloway said. “He is one of the greatest in our sport, but it is time for a up-to-date era.”
“I have been an underdog my whole life. I do not care. I shouldn’t be here. Max Holloway shouldn’t be talking to any of you. I shouldn’t be here. It is what it is. “Actions speak louder than words, and I have done many things.”
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