He is yet to float like a butterfly or sting like a bee, but Nico Ali Walsh will on Saturday follow his grandfather Muhammad Ali into the boxing ring at Madison Square Garden, the venue of many a memorable bout fought by “The Greatest”.
The 21-year-old Las Vegas resident only turned pro in August and currently holds a 2-0 record. His middleweight fight on Saturday against Reyes Sanchez is scheduled for only four rounds.
Ali, who passed away in 2016, did everything from box in the “Fight of the Century” to guest referee the main event in the first Wrestlemania at the Madison Square Garden, or the Garden.
“This place holds a sentimental value,” Ali Walsh said. “If I wasn’t related to my grandfather then it would be super special just for the history. But because he fought here and I haven’t really gone anywhere where he fought like that, it’s just special and I think my family’s going to think the same thing when they come here.”
Ali Walsh, the son of Ali’s daughter Rasheda, will continue to carve out his legacy in the boxing world when he faces Zayas. “I would just say I’m an aggressive fighter, and I just try to use that forward aggression in a fight to win fights and to knockouts,” Ali Walsh said.
The bout coincides with the 40th anniversary of Ali’s final professional fight. On December 11, 1981, in a fight called the “Drama in Bahama,” Ali, then 39, lost a unanimous decision in a bout in Nassau, The Bahamas, versus Trevor Berbick, then a rising star in heavyweight boxing.
Nico is aware of the legacy and the burden of history he carries.
“The fact that I get to walk around the same grounds that he and Joe Frazier and so many others have is awesome,” Ali Walsh said. “I know that he loved New York because he had so many fights here. I think boxers in general, no matter where they’re from, they know that if you’re fighting in Madison Square
Garden, then, like, you’ve made it.”
Ali Walsh’s aunt and Ali’s daughter Laila Ali had also fought, and won, at Madison Square Garden, in 2006.
The biggest boxing bouts are now held in Las Vegas, unlike when Ali was the star of the sport. He fought eight times at the Garden, winning all of them except his first fight with Frazier, billed as “The Fight of the Century”, on March 8, 1971. Frazier knocked Ali down in the 15th round and won a unanimous decision to retain his heavyweight title and hand Ali his first loss.
Ali Walsh pointed out that though his grandfather lost the fight, some good came from the defeat.
Ali avenged his loss with a win over Frazier at the same venue on January 28, 1974, called the Super Fight II, before winning their epic rubber match in the Philippines, the “Thrilla of Manila”, on October 1, 1975.
“If he didn’t lose that fight, if he won that fight, then we wouldn’t have gotten ‘The Thrilla in Manila,’ we wouldn’t have gotten the second fight even with Joe Frazier,” Ali Walsh said. “So everything happened for a reason and those were some of the greatest fights in all of boxing, one of the best trilogies in all of boxing.”
As a teenager, Ali Walsh used to show videos of his training and sparring to his grandfather. Ali stressed to him the importance of moving and dancing, part of an arsenal that made him stand out from so many fighters before or since.
“I remember he used to say he won’t miss boxing, boxing will miss him, and I really feel like that makes sense now that he’s gone,” Ali Walsh said.
“His shadow looms over the sport of boxing, so it’s not just me getting compared to him because of me being the grandson. Everyone gets compared to him because he is boxing and it’s just, he left such an impact on the sport.”
