Nico Ali Walsh has the most famous last name in boxing history, but he kept it secret – until Mike Tyson blew his cover.
The 24-year-old Is the grandson of Muhammad Ali – Lovingly known as the greatest.
Nico’s parents – including Ali’s daughter Rasheda whose sister Laila was a champion boxer – never wanted him to enter the family business.
But against 14, Ali Walsh – with the help of his grandfather – convinced his family to allow him to box.
However, it came with only one condition, he had to hide his iconic Ali -last name.
Ali Walsh said to Sunsport: ‘Of course I omitted the name. Even when I was 15 years old, my full name Nico Ali Walsh is, but I cut the Ali.
“I said my name is Nico Walsh, but they found out somehow. My parents could not be said with Ali either.
“I don’t know how, they would just start announcing amateur fights. So it didn’t take long. The incognito version of myself did not last very long.”
It turns out to be Boxing Great Tyson – A good friend of Hero Ali’s – Perhaps a role played in Nico’s secret that was exposed.
He revealed: “It probably started around my third amateur fight because I started to show up weird people for my fighting.
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“Like my third amateur fight was here in Vegas and Mike Tyson discovered that I fought and he and his wife Kiki sent an SMS my mother and were something like:” Hey, we heard Nico’s fight here. Mike wants to come to the fight. “
“So Mike finally came to my amateur fight and it was only he, whoever he was, and then my family.
“So there were 7/8 people in the crowd, and we were alone, so I think people might have started to realize it.
“I started to show up strange people for my fighting. Why does Mike Tyson show up before this man’s amateur fight? And he left immediately afterwards.
“So that may have contributed to the fact that people find out.”
With the name of Ali Walsh was no longer secret, he had almost 30 amateur attacks Before becoming professional in 2021.
And he did this with the legendary promoter Bob Arum, who organized some of the most iconic battles of Ali.
In the meantime, Ali Walsh is no stranger to rivals who want to make a name for himself by trying to break down his namesake – even behind closed doors.
He said: “Sparring and training, it is never 100 percent of the time.
“Sparring is where you work on things and you do certain things, but when I go outside of someone I know immediately, they try to eliminate me in sparring.
“Everyone who has me the deceased tries to eliminate me. So it’s very annoying, but I got that my whole professional career.
“I sometimes had that in my amateur career, but now it is as if people come to try to absorb my head in the gym.
“And they also do it in fights, which fights are different. I don’t care what you do in a fight, but in the gym it gets ridiculous on some points.”
Ali Walsh is now 15 fights in his professional career, with 12 wins, two losses and one not contest.
He bounced back with the victory against Ebenezer Sowah in Guinea in May after shock destruction for Juan Carlos Guerra JR last February.
And Ali Walsh has remained faithful to his roots by refusing to entertain cash-grab fights in Against people like Jake Paul.
The middleweight perspective has even rejected an range of $ 3 million (£ 2.2 million) To combat the 11-1 YouTuber boxer last year.
Ali Walsh explained: “I can’t be angry with these professional guys who call him, they want the money.
“And it is clear that the money they would get, they would get millions to eliminate a man who is far below the skill level of the man they get much less to fight.
“So it’s logical for these guys, but especially for me, that’s not something I want to be reminded by.
“It would really just infect my legacy to get involved in something like that.
“I feel that when people try to tell me:” Nico, you should have done this or you should have done that. ” Nobody can tell me what to do with the Ali name, except an Ali.
“So nobody outside my family will understand what I am talking about. So I don’t take any advice from someone else who tries to come to me with things like that.”
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