LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The family fighting legacy continues right here in Las Vegas.
24-year-old Biaggio Ali Walsh is one of several MMA fighters who trains at Xtreme Couture.
He's the grandson of legendary boxing icon Muhammad Ali and the brother of boxer Nico Ali Walsh.
Biaggio Ali Walsh says for the longest time, he only knew Ali as grandpa, but eventually he understood just how much his last name meant.
"There was a couple of times where we'd go into a restaurant and one person would notice who it is and then two people would notice and then before you know it the whole restaurant kind of noticed who came in and then they would stand up and start clapping," Ali Walsh said.
Ali Walsh was always a great athlete having been a star running back for Bishop Gorman before playing college football at UNLV.
Once he finished his football career, he joined the Xtreme Couture gym to stay in shape.
He says he felt lost after retiring from the sport he loved.
Once he discovered mixed martial arts, he fell in love.
"Coming to the gym was the one thing I was most excited about," Ali Walsh said. "I felt like that kind of meant something to me."
Ali Walsh currently fights in the Professional Fighters League and has an amateur record of 2-1.
He says he knows the pressure that comes with his last name. So to handle that, he takes a page out of his grandfathers book.
"I tell myself I was born to do this and stuff like that, that good self-talk," Ali Walsh said. "The more you do it, the more you actually start to believe it kind of like what my grandfather did. He said he was the greatest before he actually believed it but he said it so much that he actually started to believe it."
