![]() ![]() With that, predictably, comes perhaps unparalleled pressure. In view of his family tree, they have been more eyes on Ali Walsh right the way through his athletic development, first as he played American football at college level until his introduction to, and swift affinity with, MMA. “One of the common things he would draw is a little ring with two stick figures and then do a bunch of dots around it until it covered the whole napkin, or piece of paper or whatever. “So that was kind of how we communicated with him, through activities like magic, watching a movie, an old fight, drawing. Some of our favourite ways to communicate with him was through magic. “Sometimes he'd be reading a book and, of course, it’s a book about himself and it's his fights and everything. “We used to watch some of his old fights,” Ali Walsh says. Understandably, boxing represented an obvious bond even when Ali’s speech became ever-more slurred as Parkinson’s took tighter hold, depriving one of sport’s great orators of what was perhaps his most potent weapon. It was clutch to be able to have him live so close to us.” When I was a lot younger, he could speak a little bit clearer as opposed to when he got older. “Obviously, he had Parkinson's and it got worse and worse over the years. “Since I was super little, to early teens, to high school. “I have memories from my entire life up until he passed away ,” Ali Walsh says, The family would travel to Ali’s residence in Michigan for Thanksgiving or other celebrations, but time together became more frequent when the former boxing star relocated to Phoenix, not far from Vegas. His grandfather featured prominently then, too. “Anytime there was a boxing card, we would have a fight night at the house.” “That’s my childhood basically,” Ali Walsh says. Ali Walsh, 25, remembers watching “almost every single Manny Pacquiao fight” growing up, tuning in also whenever Miguel Cotto or Floyd Mayweather Jr were inside the ring. Of course, fighting, or more pertinently boxing, was a central component throughout his upbringing. “Maybe it's in our genetics to want to fight.” Aunt Laila Ali retired undefeated from boxing having held all the major belts at super-middleweight, and the IWBF light-heavyweight crown.Ī post shared by Biaggio might just be in our blood,” Ali Walsh confirms. It’s not only their famous grandfather, or the now-professional brothers in combat sport. Maybe, with that luminous lineage, his path was already marked out. So just to be able to travel all over the world and meet people and fight out there, be able to do the sport that I love, it’s super cool. “We actually found out when we were in Africa for my brother's fight. The background of my grandfather and the respect that he gets in the Middle East, and to be able to fight out there, I'm super excited. ![]() “Oh yeah it's just a feather in the hat,” Ali Walsh says. Given his grandfather became synonymous with fighting in less-traditional boxing backyards – Saudi, granted, is fast becoming a hub for big-time combat sports – this week’s setting for his pro bow feels almost as if it was meant to be. There, at Kingdom Arena in the capital, Ali Walsh will face Argentina’s Emmanuel Palacio on the much-anticipated “PFL Champions vs Bellator Champions” card. ![]()
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