Meet Nico Ali Walsh, the Successor to Legendary Boxer Muhammad Ali

AMERICA – World sports legends rarely have successors as athletes. However, legendary boxer Muhammad Ali should be proud because one of his grandchildren is pursuing the world of boxing.

Nico Ali Walsh (23), Muhammad Ali’s grandson, will fight at the James L. Knight Center, Miami against Sona Akale on Saturday (6/7/2024) to maintain his boxing career.

“It’s a little hard to get out of (Muhammad Ali’s) shadow. But I don’t think anyone in boxing will ever get out of his shadow. Everyone, when they’re great at boxing, is compared to the greatest,” Walsh was quoted as saying by the Miami Herald, Monday (1/7/2024).

In the lead-up to the fight, Walsh took a chance to visit the places that shaped his grandfather’s youth. He went to the Miami Beach Convention Center, where a 22-year-old Ali defeated Sonny Liston to win the heavyweight title in 1964.

He also visited an exhibit about Ali in Miami Beach, then went to the Fifth Street Gym. “It’s amazing because this was his main training ground before he became Ali,” Walsh said.

The founder of the Miami Beach Ali exhibit, Troy Wright, called the experience of meeting the Ali family magical. “It was like there was a total time transition because Rasheda (Muhammad Ali’s daughter) started seeing everything,” Wright said.

The executive director of Washington Avenue Business Improvement personally gave Walsh and his mother, Rasheda, a tour. “It was like he was back in his childhood. He started pointing things out to Nico like, ‘This is the old house!'”

South Florida had a profound effect on Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali’s birth name. He arrived in highly segregated Miami in 1960 as an 18-year-old. Not only did he win the heavyweight title in Miami Beach 60 years ago, but it also helped transform him from Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali and into the Nation of Islam.

“There were many ways for people to participate in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s,” Ali wrote in his autobiography.