Nico Ali Walsh, the grandson of the late, lionized boxing champ Muhammad Ali, made his grand entry into professional pugilism with a knockout in his inaugural fight on Saturday, Aug. 14, 2021.
Walsh wore the same white trunks that his legendary grandfather wore decades ago during the peak of his career and worldwide fame. Walsh, 21, quickly vanquished Jordan Weeks with a first-round TKO during their middleweight bout at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Catoosa, Oklahoma, 15 miles east of Tulsa.
“I’m blessed and honored to say that I continued history,” Walsh penned on Instagram on Sunday. 
“I’m more than proud to say: The Legacy Continues.”
That post came five days after Walsh announced that he was continuing what Ali began in the mid-1960s in a video tribute to him and his grandfather.
Ali had nine children, including Laila Ali, who also went on to become a world champion boxer at the turn of the new millennium.
Like Laila Ali, Walsh has embraced the gigantic shadow his grandfather continues to cast over boxing, sports and American society.
“I’ve never been able to escape my grandfather, no matter what sport I played,” Walsh explained to The New York Times.
“I’m starting to embrace it. It’s very hard to do, but you have to embrace the legacy, no matter what it is. Everybody becomes stronger when they embrace what they’re destined to do.”
Ironically, or perhaps appropriately, Walsh is a boxer with Top Rank, which is run by Bob Arum, who founded the company in 1966 when he started promoting Ali.
