I'm super excited to be joined
by a very special guest today,
Biagio Ali Walsh in the studio with me.
Appreciate you being here.
Thanks for having me.
A lot of people,
I'm sure when they hear your na,
automatically think of your fam.
Muhammad Ali,
you are the grandson of Muhammad Ali.
Why did you want to go into
somewhat of the family business?
I know you're MMA and he was bo,
but why did you want to go that route?
It kind of fell into my lap. You know,
I played Division One college football.
For two I played two years at Cl
Berkeley and then I transferredk
to you and I'll be and played h.
And it wasn't really working out for me.
So I wanted to still stay in sh,
you know, not playing football anymore.
And I trained over Extreme Coute
just to initially stay in shape.
At the same time,
I was interning as an assistant
strength and conditioning coacha
sports facility that was in Veg,
and a lot of the fighters that I
was coaching were fighters from
Extreme Couture that I knew.
So I just remember standing the,
you know,
2122 years old and and thinking to myself,
I miss being the athlete.
I miss putting in the hard work
and and getting rewarded for tht
and I I just miss it.
So at that moment actually I I was like,
you know what,
I'm going to take MMA serious and I'm going
to just see how far I can go with it.
And you do have an MMA fight coming up
here in Atlanta in just a couple weeks,
June 16th at OTE fighting for
the first time in Atlanta.
You excited to do that?
I'm super excited. Yeah, thrill.
What are you most excited aboutn
it comes to fighting in this ci?
Winning. Definitely winning
and and trying out some good fo.
You know there was a spot here,
I forgot the name of it,
but it had the best chicken
and waffles I've ever had. So.
That's pretty good.
Hopefully you can figure out wht
was and that you could go back there.
You know, one of the things thaI
think is so cool is that this cy
does mean a lot to your family.
Your grandfather was able to
light the Olympic cauldron here.
Your brother and your mom
actually visited that,
but you have not seen it yet.
Is that on the itinerary for
you while you're here? Yeah,
that's definitely on my bucket ,
you know, in Shala after this w,
Go over there, check it out.
And. Yeah, I'm super excited.
What are some of the things that
you remember the most during yor
time with your grandfather and e
influence that he had on your l?
The biggest things I remember with him
is just spending quality time with him.
You know, we used to hang
out and just watch movies.
We used to. He loved magic.
So my brother bought like a Criss Angel
magic kit and we used to do magic tricks
just to get a reaction out of him and.
My favorite memory was going to
see Peter Jackson's King Kong,
though That was probably my favorite memory.
And obviously he had such an
illustrious boxing career.
But you remember the man that he was.
I've heard in a couple times,
the interviews that you've done,
you were most influenced by the stuff
that he did outside of the ring.
Why is that
100%? He he was the people's champ. You know,
he he earned that name for a re.
You know, he he didn't have any
security walking down the stree.
He took pictures and signed autographs
for everyone he people would give them.
Their kids and and he'd
hold them and kiss them.
And he was, he was a people's c.
And yeah, he was a great humanitarian.
All the love that he spread
and the charity work that he's
done is that that's the side of
him that inspires me the most.
Obviously you weren't around
during his boxing career,
but you've learned so much from your parents,
from watching things and from
your conversations with him.
What can you take from those
moments and really infiltrate
into your young career?
Like I said, you know,
just seeing him as an example, you know,
he he's not just an example to ,
but all of the world, you know,
he's inspired millions and
millions of people and I think
the more we try to be like that,
the better our world will be.
So those are the biggest takeaways I get.
That's really cool.
Let's talk about your young car,
cuz you're you're new into
this and you've had a couple of
really successful fights lately.
Your last two were very quick.
You and I were just talking abot
it before we got on camera.
What were you most proud of when
it came to those two recent fig?
Getting my hand raised that
that's what I'm most proud of.
Obviously I'm I'm always grateful for a win.
Yeah, that. That's pretty much,
yeah. And you just told me
about your football background.
I know you played it in college.
How can that help you when
it comes to your MMA?
Yeah, so football is obviously A-Team
sport and MMA is an individual sport,
but you need a team to to be successful.
You know, you you can't go into the cage
with with nobody cornering you or anything,
so you got to have somewhat
of a team at the gym.
I train at Extreme Couture.
We're a family there.
We're a giant family and we're a big team.
And I think that the,
the team aspect from football
transferred over to MMA for sur.
And apparently you ran a sub
for 3:40 in high school.
Yeah, that's got to help somewh,
right? You're quick.
It's pretty fast. Yeah.
Do you do people really know th?
I I don't know if they know it,
but you know, now they do, Yeah.
The more they watch my career,
they'll know that not my feet are fast,
but my hands are too. Yeah,
I like that. I like that.
So you're going to transfer that
all over the place? I hope so.
You are an amateur fighter right
now and there are a couple steps
that you want to take you and
your coaches want to take to mae
sure that you can get to the pro
level that you are going for.
What are those steps?
Yeah. So the PFL has given
me a great opportunity.
They see potential in me.
And I am super blessed and gratl
to have the opportunities that I have
and to be exposed to to these cameras
and and to fight on a big staged
to fight on ESPN and and get all
the media attention as an amate.
You know, by the time I go pro
it's going to be second nature.
So I feel like the stars are all
just aligning for everything
to happen the right way.
Yeah, you know, fighting on a PFL stage is.
Most pros don't really get
that kind of experience,
and I'm getting this experience
as an amateur.
So right now I just want to get
as many fights as I can until my
coach thinks that I'm ready to
go pro and go to that next leve.
But I'm just super grateful for
everything that's happening.
As we mentioned, you are going e
fighting in Atlanta in a couple weeks,
in the middle of June.
What's your push for people to t
out there and watch you in the ?
I mean, you guys want to see
a good fight like that's.
It's going to be a great fight.
It's going to be a good card.
I think there's heavyweights on
this card, so you get to see
the big boys fight, too. And
you're not heavyweight.
You're a lightweight.
Yeah, I'm a lightweight.
Explain to people what that meas
for people who aren't really aw.
Yeah. So in in MMA, the lightwet
division is at 155 pounds,
heavyweight is 265 and up, yeah. Yeah.
And and and on that card, there,
there's a lot of heavyweight fi.
So it should be a great card.
Circling back to your
grandfather really quickly.
It is a family business in a wa,
because your brother's in it.
You know, your grandfather did .
Do you feel any kind of pressur?
Oh, yeah, I I feel pressure every day.
I felt, I felt pressure as a little kid,
you know, when we were kids,
it was a secret who our grandpa.
We always kept it a secret.
If anybody knew, I'd be like,
who told you, you know?
So it was always a secret.
And then by the time I hit 14 years old,
I was playing a freshman football at at
Bishop Gorman and I had a successful career,
a successful season and Max pre.
They do a lot of coverage
on high school sports.
They somehow found out who I was related to.
I still to this day don't
know how they found out,
but they found out and ever since then
the media kind of just exploded with the
football success and and who I'm related to.
So yeah,
I've had that pressure almost my whole life.
Really. So.
But, you know,
what comes out of pressure is diamonds,
right?
So everybody's got that pressur,
and it's just how you deal
with it that matters most.
Obviously, it's a tremendous honor for you
to have your grandfather be Muhammad Ali,
but how do you separate yourself
from that as you're trying to gt
into your young career now? Yea.
Do my thing, you know,
go out there and and be myself.
Have I have my own personality.
I have my own talents when it comes to
getting in the cage and and fighting.
Be yourself, you know, That's how I'm
going to make my own name, you ,
every fighter wants to make their own name.
They want to create their own legacy,
you know. That's their ultimate goal.
I'm doing the exact same thing.
It's just a little elevated
because my who my grandfather i,
I get a little bit more attenti.
And a little bit more exposure as well.
But you know, I wouldn't be signed if I
was one in five or one in six, you know,
if I was a fighter with no potel
or or didn't have any talent, r.
So the hype kind of comes when
you see potential, you know?
So yeah,
all right, you got the really
quick knockouts in the last
two fights that you have.
What are we looking forward
to in the next two?
I I always say the same thing, you know,
anything can happen in a fight.
You got to be prepared for any outcome,
but I'm going to get my hand ra.
That's all I know.
OK. And hopefully here in Atlanta too.
What else do you know about the city of
Atlanta besides the chicken and waffles?
I know some of my favorite
artists are from here.
Yeah. True. Like who? Yeah,
I know TI is from Atlanta.
I think Future is from Atlanta.
So those are, you know, the.
I grew up listening to TI
and I love Future so. Yeah.
OK. Well, hopefully you can
join a little bit of the city
as well as you are going to be.
I look forward to that. Yeah.
OK. Also, I appreciate you being
here today. Thank you so much.