Ahead of Miami fight debut, Muhammad Ali’s grandson follows legends’ footsteps

It’s difficult to carve out a legacy with a superstar athlete in the family.

From Bronny James to Marcus Jordan to Trinity Rodman, every child or grandchild of a sports legend has had to deal with it – especially if the offspring plays the same sport.

Such is the case with Nico Ali Walsh (10-1), the grandson of Muhammad Ali. And as he sits outside the James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami, just steps away from where the 23-year-old will rematch Sona Akale (9-1) on Saturday, even he acknowledges the difficulties that will follow him throughout his boxing career.

“It’s been a little difficult to break out the shadow,” Walsh told the Miami Herald. “But I don’t think anyone boxing will ever be out of his shadow. Everyone, when they’re great in boxing, gets compared to the greatest.”

In the days leading up to the fight, Walsh got an opportunity to walk the very places that shaped Ali’s young adulthood. He went to the Miami Beach Convention Center, where a 22-year-old Ali defeated Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title in 1964. He went to Miami Beach’s Ali exhibit. He even went to the new Fifth Street Gym.

For someone who never visited Miami but lived with the history, it was an amazing opportunity, Walsh said.

“It’s awesome,” Walsh said. “This was his main stomping grounds before he became Ali.”

The brain behind Miami Beach’s Ali exhibit, Troy Wright called the experience of meeting Ali’s family “magical.”

“It almost as if there was a total transition of time because Rasheda [Ali] just started looking at everything,” said Wright, the executive director of the Washington Avenue Business Improvement District which put on the exhibit. Wright also personally gave Walsh and his mother, Rasheda, the tour. “It was like she was kicked back to her childhood. She started pointing out things to Nico like ‘This is the old house!’”

South Florida had a profound effect on the 18-year-old Cassius Clay, who arrived to a very segregated Miami in 1960. Not only did he win the heavyweight title in Miami Beach 60 years ago, but this place helped transform him from Cassius Clay into Muhammad Ali. The incidents that happened here – not being allowed to try on clothes at Burdines, not being allowed to stay on Miami Beach because of his skin color and not being able run across the causeway without police stopping him – helped him discover the Nation of Islam.

“There were many ways for people to participate in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s,” he wrote in his autobiography, “The Soul of the Butterfly.” “… I chose to join the Nation of Islam, which promoted Black pride and independence. When I became a member, I was fighting for equality and Black pride at the same time. Whatever approach you chose, the goal was the same: We all wanted freedom, justice, and equality for Black people in America.”

Less than 24 hours after the Miami Beach fight, Clay announced his conversion to the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad would grant him the name “Muhammad Ali” shortly thereafter. Between his grandfather’s conversion and first heavyweight victory, Walsh’s upcoming fight is even more special — especially following a visit to the convention center where he traced Ali’s footsteps.

“The convention center was the coolest because I was actually stepping where everything happened,” Walsh said. “I felt the energy there.”

Walsh hopes some of that energy feeds into his upcoming bout. Akale handed Walsh the only loss of his young career in August 2023 and there’s a sense that he wants revenge.

“My grandfather said ‘I shook up the world’ [after the fight],” Walsh said. “I keep thinking about ‘I shook up the world.’ That’s what I plan to do Saturday but, like I said on stage, ‘I’m not fighting Sonny Liston.’ So I’m not going to shake up the world but I’m going to shake up my world because it’s an important fight for me.”

As Walsh speaks, the differences between him and his grandfather become obvious. He’s much calmer. He’s not as boisterous. He’s not even as physically big. It’s no wonder he doesn’t welcome most of the comparisons.

“At the end of the day, he’s my favorite fighter,” Walsh said. “So if I do get a comparison like, ‘Oh my god, you’re footwork looks like your grandfather,’ I would love to get those comparisons. But I don’t like to hear comparison after comparison after comparison because I’m my own person.”

Still, the comparisons will continue to follow him every time he steps in the ring. The reality of the situation is that whether Walsh likes it or not, the proverbial torch was passed to him.

“In the world of boxing itself, my dad has a footprint,” said Rasheda Ali, Walsh’s mother. “And Nico walking into his shoes is not easy for him but I think he’s the best candidate to be able to carry on the legacy.”

His grandfather must have known that, too. Walsh started boxing in 2014, two years before Ali’s passing, and actually repeatedly told his grandfather he wanted to quit. Ali, however, wouldn’t let him.

“If anyone was going to give me the way out, it was the person who gave me the way in,” Walsh said. “I tried to get him to tell me to quit but he just wouldn’t budge.”