It took Sean Strickland the best part of four years training with Biaggio Ali Walsh to realize who his famous grandfather is.
Former UFC champion Strickland is one of the loudest and most influential voices at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas, where Ali Walsh honed his skills from amateur level to the pro ranks. Now, the 26-year-old is competing in PFL, where he returns on June 27 in Chicago.
It is a well-known fact about not just Biaggio but his brother Nico Ali Walsh that they are the grandsons of boxing icon Muhammad Ali. However, Strickland didn’t notice until just this week, when he asked his teammate about his family history.
Sean Strikland took years to realize Biaggio Ali Walsh is Muhammad Ali’s grandson
After years of training together, Sean Strickland and Biaggio Ali Walsh have developed something of a friendship in Las Vegas. However, they clearly weren’t close enough for Strickland to notice his teammate’s famous surname, or the reason why he was fighting on ESPN as an amateur
“Sean talks a lot of trash,” Ali Walsh noted in an exclusive chat with BloodyElbow. In fact, we were literally done sparring yesterday [Tuesday] and he came up to me and he’s like ‘you’re Muhammad Ali’s grandson?’
“I said ‘Sean you didn’t know that? Doesn’t the boxing make sense.’ He started smiling and thought it was really cool… I’m in the PFL and I’m an amateur, that doesn’t really happen, right? I thought it was kind of funny. Xtreme Couture has got a lot of cool guys.
Biaggio Ali Walsh is honing his skills in the PFL
After just two amateur fights, Biaggio Ali Walsh was signed up to the PFL in 2022, where he was given the chance to fight on a massive stage while training. He took on five amateur bouts before last year turning over to the professional ranks.
He is currently 2-0 as a professional, and takes on Ronnie Gibbs when he returns to his hometown of Chicago on June 27. “I always felt like I was the best under pressure,” he explained. “That 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 the curtain raiser for the world tournament for PFL, I can’t even tell you how scared I was for that.
“I didn’t expect that; my third amateur fight being on this kind of stage. I give a lot of credit to God first of course and also the experience I had with football growing up playing for Bishop Gorman here in Vegas with the lights and cameras.”
