Muhammad Ali's legacy is one of the most iconic in boxing, and will tomorrow night extend into mixed martial arts when his grandson Biaggio Ali Walsh makes his PFL debut.
Laila Ali and Nico Ali Walsh have kept the legendary heavyweight champion's name alive in their ring careers over the years following his retirement in 1981. The 44-year-old Ali won several world titles while the 22-year-old competes for his granddad's old promoter Bob Arum.
And now the Ali name moves into the MMA mainstream when Biaggio fights in just his third amateur bout at the Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the PFL Championships. The former football standout made his debut back in June, and is 1-1 as he looks to forge a legacy of his own inside the cage.
Nico was always keen to pursue boxing, and turned professional just a few days after turning 21. But Biaggio's sport of choice was American Football, which he played to a high level in college before deciding to move into MMA in Las Vegas, now training at Xtreme Couture.
"We watched a lot of boxing but I wasn't doing a lot of training or anything like Nico was doing," Biaggio told Mirror Fighting ahead of his bout with Tom Graesser, which will make him the fourth member of his family to fight at the famed New York venue. "He did a couple of charity events in Chicago for my uncle and I wasn't really doing that, I kind of just watched.
"After football I was kind of lost, and MMA just fell into my lap. I was, at first, training to stay in shape, but then I started to like it, then like it more, then I said 'you know what, I'm 22-years-old, why not? I don't want to be 35-plus-years-old and think 'what if? Would I have been a good fighter?' I don't want to have these types of questions. I would rather just take advantage of the one life that you have and then do it to your fullest potential."
Both brothers have had baptisms of fire in their respective sports; Nico's professional debut was on ESPN as part of the undercard of a world title trilogy while Biaggio's amateur bow was shown on pay-per-view. For the younger sibling, the results have gone his way thus far with seven straight wins against opponents all but one of whom had winning records, but his brother wasn't so lucky.
Biaggio made his debut against a tricky Devin Rothwell, who submitted him in the first round amid major media interest. However, just a few weeks on the smaller stage of Crown Fighting Championship in Utah, he managed to secure a first-round knockout win over Bradley Seaver.
"It's exciting," Nico said of his brother's career. "I don't really know how the amateur MMA world works but it's super-exciting. He's going to find out that it comes with the territory and see that when you get into the sport you get opportunities because of the name.
"But then you start facing harder opposition because everyone wants to knock out an Ali. He'll be able to deal with that and it will be fun to watch him win. He was never really into boxing, he just recently the last couple of years got into MMA. I fell in love with boxing since I was a baby, it was always in my heart. MMA's new, but it definitely is cool that we're taking over combat sports."
Biaggio's August win set him up for a deal with the PFL to place a rare amateur bout on their upcoming card, where he faces the experienced hometown fighter Graesser. His record suggests he will make his debut, but it is believed he may have fought as many as eight times and amassed a record of 4-4.
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"It's crazy, they're saying he's 0-0 but he's actually 4-4," Biaggio claims. "He has a lot of experience, he also had a lot of unsanctioned fights that aren't on record. Just to be able to fight a guy like him, I'm just excited and I don't think that he is on my level... I like to normalise things, a fight's a fight."
While boxing was very good to his family for the most part, both Muhammad Ali himself and Laila felt the effects of the sport's darker side, with Nico sure to follow should his career progress in the same way. But the family had no reservations about the two brothers getting into fighting, although the pair did discuss the target about to be painted on their backs.
"I know our parents would rather me and Nico play tennis or golf," Biaggio joked. "But I talked to Nico too before he started taking boxing a lot more seriously and turned pro, I told him, 'there's going to be a lot of pressure and a big neon target on your head'. We kind of just expected to have a lot of pressure and the best versions of the guys we fight.
"Look, everyone wants to knock out an Ali, but I don't really think about the pressure that much. It just doesn't help me to think about it because when I normalise things and think in a way 'oh we're just fighting it's no big deal', it helps me a lot to deal with that pressure."
