Sean Strickland didn’t know that he was sparring with Muhammad Ali’s grandson.
For years, Biaggio Ali Walsh, who has trained alongside the former UFC champion at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, has now become a budding MMA superstar from a highly hyped amateur outlook, competing under the PFL banner.
After a successful amateur campaign where he won six consecutive games, Walsh made his professional debut at the PFL vs. Bellator event last February, winning an unanimous decision victory over Emmanuel Palacio. He has since added another highlight reel KO to his resume, clearing up Brian Stapleton in just 55 seconds in the August 2024 crash.
On June 27th, he aims to go 3-0 when he meets Ronnie Gibbs at the PFL World Tournament in Chicago.
The 26-year-old returned to Chi Town, but spent time sparring with Strickland in Las Vegas. In a recent session, Strickland asked about Walsh’s family history. That’s when the UFC star realized he had been throwing his hands with his “large” grandson all this time.
“Shaun talks about a lot of garbage,” Ali Walsh said in an exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow. In fact, we literally finished sparring yesterday (Tuesday) and he came to me, and he is like, “Are you the grandson of Muhammad Alee?”
“I thought, ‘Shawn didn’t know that? Boxing doesn’t make sense.’ He started laughing and thought it was really cool… I’m at Amateur, doesn’t it really happen?
Biaggio Ali Walsh talks about the pressure to be an amateur fighter on the global stage
Only twice in his battle with his amateur career, the PFL signed Walsh and quickly thrust him into the spotlight. Asked about his experience of cutting teeth at the global stage, Walsh believes that pressure always brings the best in him, and realizes that pressure continues to accumulate to raise his MMA rank.
“I always felt I was the best under pressure,” Walsh explained. “The pressure is where I think I’m forced to be the best version of myself. That’s how I deal with it, but it’s going to get worse… My third amateur fight was at Madison Square Garden as Curtain Razor in the PFL World Tournament.
“I didn’t expect that. My third amateur fight is in this kind of stage. Of course, I give God a lot of credibility. I also had football experience playing for Bishop Gorman here in Vegas on the lights and camera.”