| This photo provided by the PFL shows Biaggio Ali Walsh of the United States prepares for a fight against Tom Graesser, in the Professional Fighters League (PFL) at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Nov. 25, 2022. Yonhap |
Imagine being a grandson of an American icon, at once a heavyweight boxing champion and a courageous civil rights hero. Imagine trying to find your way in mixed martial arts while carrying the weight of that family name and legacy.
Imagine being Biaggio Ali Walsh, the grandson of the one and only Muhammad Ali.
For Ali Walsh, the 24-year-old up-and-coming mixed martial artist, the name "Ali" is both "a blessing and a curse," as he tries to move up the ranks in the Professional Fighters League (PFL), a relatively young mixed martial arts (MMA) competition.
"Obviously, the blessing is we get the exposure that we're getting a little bit easier than most people," Ali Walsh told Yonhap News Agency in an interview from Las Vegas on Friday. "But that is also kind of a curse. There's more pressure, there's more eyes on us. People expect so much of you, which kind of falls back into the category of pressure. I'd say it's definitely a blessing and a curse."
Ali Walsh's younger brother, Nico, is a boxer. Growing up, the two boys would be challenged to street boxing matches by people who knew the two were related to Ali. In Biaggio's words, the brothers "would beat up on some kids who wanted to fight us," but boxing never once entered his mind.
"I became an MMA fan early in high school," he said. "And I just fell in love with the idea that there's multiple martial arts rather than just one martial art that can play a part in a fight."
But before he got into MMA, Ali Walsh was an accomplished football player. As a running back for the powerhouse Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Ali Walsh won three consecutive national championships while going 45-0 from 2014 to 2016.
But the promising football career hit a speed bump in college. He first committed to the University of California, Berkeley, with a full-ride scholarship. Before Ali Walsh even got to the campus, though, the coaching staff that had recruited him had been fired. The new staff didn't play him, prompting Ali Walsh to come home and play for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He didn't get much playing time there, either, and football no longer seemed to be in his future.
| This photo provided by PFL shows Biaggio Ali Walsh of the United States, left, fighting Tom Graesser in the Professional Fighters League (PFL) at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Nov. 25, 2022. Yonhap |
Ali Walsh said he later had a light-bulb moment, when the thought went into his head that he was going to commit fully to MMA.
Out of college, he was interning as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at an athletic facility. He was working with MMA fighters he had already known at Xtreme Couture, an MMA training organization with a flagship gym in Las Vegas. Ali Walsh himself had been training at Xtreme Couture to stay in shape, not necessarily to fight.
But then it hit him.
"I remember watching these guys work and standing there as a 22-year-old kid. And I thought to myself, 'I'm only 22. Why am I coaching? Why am I not the athlete? I miss being the athlete,'" Ali Walsh said. "So it was that moment where in my head I was like, 'I'm going to do this. I'm going to just go all the way and see how far I can go with MMA.
"I don't want to be 35, 40 years old and think about, 'What if I had been a good fighter, how far would I have gone?'" he continued. "These are questions that I don't want to have in the future. So I told myself in that very moment that I'm going to do this all the way."
| This photo provided by the PFL shows Biaggio Ali Walsh of the United States, right, fighting Tom Graesser in the Professional Fighters League (PFL) at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Nov. 25, 2022. Yonhap |
Ali Walsh said the footwork drills he did as a running back and the peripheral vision he developed trying to find a hole in the defense have helped him in MMA. The gym he trains at is also very team oriented, and Ali Walsh is obviously no stranger to team sports.
Ali Walsh lost his MMA debut in the Fusion Fight League on June 3, 2022. But he won his next three fights, including the one against Isaiah Figueroa in the PFL on April 7 this year.
He is still an amateur and even referred to himself as "a baby" in MMA. He said his immediate goal is to gain as much experience as he can.
"I'd get a couple more fights before the end of the year. The experience that I'm getting right now as an amateur, fighting on a stage like the PFL is priceless experience," he said. "And it's only going to prepare me even more when I turn pro."
Ali Walsh said he hopes for a chance to fight in South Korea as the PFL expands, and claimed he is a fan of Korean zombie films.
"Koreans make the best zombie films shows and movie, hands down," Ali Walsh said with a smile. "My brother and my mom, we would both stick to that because we love the Korean zombie movies and shows."
| This photo provided by the PFL shows Biaggio Ali Walsh of the United States, right, fighting Tom Graesser in the Professional Fighters League (PFL) at Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, Nov. 25, 2022. Yonhap |
Both Biaggio and Nico have tattoos that represent their famous grandfather. The older brother has a butterfly on his left arm and a bee on the right arm, in a nod to his grandfather's famous quote, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
Biaggio recalled going to a movie or a restaurant with his grandfather and seeing people dropping what they were doing to admire the legendary boxer.
To many, Muhammad Ali was more than a boxer. He was a high-profile leader for African Americans during the civil rights movement and was hailed as a champion of justice and unity. He famously refused induction into the U.S. military during the Vietnam War and was not allowed to fight during his peak years in the late 20s because of his anti-war stance.
| This photo provided by the PFL shows Biaggio Ali Walsh of the United States entering Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York for a fight against Tom Graesser in the Professional Fighters League (PFL), Nov. 25, 2022. Yonhap |
Biaggio Ali Walsh said that aspect of his grandfather's life inspires him even more than his boxing career.
"He was a man of pure confidence, pure ambition, and pure conviction. He stuck to his beliefs regardless of what even the government was saying about him," the grandson said. "Especially as an African American, at a time when African Americans were dealing with a lot of segregation and racism, for him to stand up and stick to his word and put his foot in the ground and not move that foot was so impactful. It just shows that not only was he a fighter inside the ring, but he was also a fighter for social justice and equality. He did it with such class, such confidence and charisma."
Ali Walsh said his grandfather, who passed away in 2016, would have been proud of him for being in MMA and would have been fully supportive.
"I think he would have told me the same thing that he told me when I was a kid: Always be humble," he said. "One day, I want to become the people's champion and be that person that a lot of people look up to, and take inspiration from. And even with that, always be humble. That's the one piece of advice that he gave me that I'll always, always carry." (Yonhap)