Hernan Sartori
08/16/2021 12:23 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/16/2021 12:27 PM
His father's name is Robert. His mother is called Rasheda. His grandfather was called Muhammad. And his name is Nico. However, the life of this 21-year-old goes through one of his surnames:
Ali
. The backpack of being
"Ali's grandson"
has accompanied him since he was born and, even more so, since he felt trapped by boxing.
Nico Walsh Ali
now knows what it's like to be
the center of attention
because he debuted with a first-round TKO of
Jordan Weeks
in a four-round middleweight bout in Tulsa. The circle is closed because the evening was organized by
Bob Arum
, promoter of 27 fights of
"The Greatest"
. They have sung "Bingo."
“
Obviously I thought of my grandfather.
He is the best boxer in history.
Perhaps the best person ever.
I miss him so much.
It has been an emotional journey and it lived up to my expectations ”, he sentenced after knocking down his opponent 109 seconds into the fight, which was soon stopped by the referee.
Inevitable to think of Muhammad Ali, icon of world sport and political activist against racism and discrimination, in addition to having stood up to the system in the United States, which punished him by taking away his heavyweight titles from the Council and the World Boxing Association for not go fight in Vietnam.
Nico's debut had the Ali touch because he
fought with pants made for his grandfather
, who died in 2016, aged 74, deteriorated by Parkinson's disease.
"I'm not going to use them anymore," Nico warned.
Nobody knows what the future will hold and although Arum himself does not want to speculate, he made something as logical as it was intriguing: “If he were my grandson, nothing would happen, but he is Ali's grandson and who knows what is in his DNA.
You can't completely rule out genetics. "
👀 This is how the KO was seen and heard from ringside 💣💥 from Nico Ali Walsh (Muhammad Ali's grandson) to Jordan Weeks
🎥 @trboxing pic.twitter.com/0sWc3tTk1V
- ESPN KnockOut (@ESPNKnockOut) August 16, 2021
The public was ecstatic.
"Ali, Ali!" They chanted in Tulsa as if time had not passed.
“I am proud of you, Nico.
An incredible legacy to continue.
Dad must be on the moon,
”wrote on Instagram mom Rasheda, the fruit of the marriage between Muhammad and Khalilah, and married to Robert Walsh.
Now, who is Nico Ali Walsh, the protagonist of a life in which he carries
the heavy backpack of being called Ali
?
Like ali
He was born in Chicago on July 11, 2000 and raised in Las Vegas, where he is a student at the University of Nevada.
Nico said that he was traveling to Phoenix to visit whom he called “
Poppy
”, with whom he formed a strong bond, the one that grandchildren have with their grandparents.
"He always held her hand and sometimes said:
'If you want me to give you water or do something for you, squeeze it,' he
recalled.
Since I couldn't speak, I squeezed it.
When I got into boxing, I didn't know what I had gotten into and I thought about quitting.
But he pushed me and I remember that moment until today.
At age 10, he participated in fights to raise charity funds and was an amateur from the age of 14, even though his mother did not like the idea.
"My family supports me.
It was hard sometimes for my mom when she came home with a bleeding nose or a black eye
, as it would be for any mother.
But he supports me, ”Nico said.
He saw most of his grandfather's fights and that leg movement that made him a three-time world heavyweight champion.
“He is my grandfather and it is hard for me to see him as something else.
He would do unconventional things, like lower his arms and do things that they don't teach you in a gym.
My style is not passive and it should be interesting for the public ”, he warned.
She says that at the age of 12 she understood that "
Poppy
" was not like the others.
“I saw how everyone I watched on television praised him.
I was thinking,
'How does this person know my grandfather?'
she told Sky Sports.
Actor Ken Jeong sang happy birthday to him.
It was wonderful.
And I saw how Snoop Dogg, P. Diddy and Stevie Wonder sang to him. "
He knew what was coming.
The pressure of the surname
Nico Ali Walsh holds hands with his mother and father after knocking out in his Tulsa debut AP Photo
“
Everyone talks about pressure, but each profession has its own pressure.
Mine may seem a little more meaningful to others, but all boxers feel the pressure to fight someone for their lives.
And that's how I see it ”, Nico sketched his thoughts on the importance - and the weight - of being called Ali.
“The love of boxing seems genetic.
The pressure is wanting to develop the best of my abilities.
And it comes from my family but not from outside.
I want my family to be proud of me.
And my grandfather too.
I don't feel pressure to honor his memory or to follow the legacy of the greatest fighter of all time.
Yes for upholding my grandfather's legacy as the patriarch of my family,
”he tried to explain his reasoning.
What was Muhammad like?
What was his "
Poppy
" like?
“He loved looking at me and he loved looking at himself.
It was fun to see his great moments in the ring with him.
I couldn't see him box.
I only heard the stories, "he confessed.
“
It did not have two faces.
What the audience saw is what it really was.
He was very friendly, very funny.
The face that no one saw?
That love you could only feel on Thanksgiving.
Everyone knows what he really was like because he couldn't hide the kind of person he was, ”he added.
Muhammad Ali was a benchmark in the fight for civil rights.
He was never silent.
He paid dearly for it, but was reborn from the ashes and faced whoever wanted to stand in front of him.
Above the ring and under the ring, where devious and uncoded hits hit the hardest.
That is the legacy that Nico wants to continue.
“I have a great opportunity to do the same as him.
His humanitarian legacy gives me the chance to help people.
I am passionate about this and I was raised that way.
The past year was particularly difficult for African Americans.
Everything that happened since George Floyd's murder ... I would have hated to see that.
It would have literally made him cry, ”Nico said of his grandfather.
“He was very happy to see Barack Obama take over as the first black president.
I don't know what he would say today, but he would definitely not shut up, ”he concluded.
Bob Arum's word
Bob Arum points to a photo with Muhammad Ali, with Nico by his side Photo @BobArum
Bob Arum is 89 years old and was the promoter of the fight that Muhammad Ali beat
George Chuvalo
on March 29, 1966, in Toronto, in his third defense of the World Boxing Council heavyweight title.
“I thought I would be in boxing for a fight or two, not for my entire life.
Now I end up promoting a fight of his grandson.
How crazy is all this? ”Commented the legend.
“
Being the promoter for Ali's grandson would have been the last thing he would have thought.
Who would have believed that 55 years later he would still be at this?
”He added.
What does Arum think of Nico Ali Walsh?
"He is very intelligent.
He's polite and I see him as the perfect athlete you want to introduce to the public, even if he wasn't Ali's grandson.
Are we optimistic?
Yes, but also realistic about what it should work on ”, he replied.
And about the pressure of the backpack, he made it clear that "it is on his shoulders, but I think the boy can handle it."
“Float like a butterfly;
it stings like a bee "
Nico Ali Walsh just realizes what he's going through.
"It is an adventure.
I wouldn't say that I thought this would happen.
It's a dream that I had since I was a kid and I never thought it would come true, "he admitted in the preview of his debut.
But it happened and his last name recirculates due to the weight of his grandfather:
The Greatest
.
“
I could never escape the weight of my grandfather, no matter what sport he played.
It is very difficult, but you must embrace the legacy.
Everyone is strengthened when they embrace what they are destined to do, ”he explained.
And he returned to the theme that will haunt him throughout his life: the pressure to be called Ali.
“I will have to live with this pressure anywhere.
They always compare me to my grandfather, ”he told Yahoo Sports.
Obviously, they compare me even more if I choose the same sport as him.
But I always had this pressure in my life ”.
Nico's brother Biaggio had a butterfly tattooed on his left arm and a bee on his right in honor of his grandfather Muhammad's famous phrase:
“Float like a butterfly;
it stings like a bee ”
.
Nico has two portraits of "
Poppy
" in their duality: the boxer who saw the world (the bee) and the grandfather he met and who in the photo is surrounded by butterflies.
"We are a family of butterflies," he describes.
I never physically saw the bee.
I saw him hit the bag when I was growing up when I was little, but he was still the butterfly.
You can see flashes of the bee here and there, but
I'm more glad I met the butterfly
. "
HS
Look also
45 years after the murder of Ringo Bonavena, the popular idol who stood up to Ali and found his death in a brothel
Carlos Monzón vs Mantequilla Napoles, that period duel that even Julio Cortázar reconstructed in his prose
