Biaggio Ali Walsh is working on establishing himself as a standout mixed martial artist, while also representing the Ali name as the grandson of famed heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali.
Walsh, who will compete as an amateur for the fourth time at this Friday’s PFL 2 card in Las Vegas, also took something of a heroic turn recently. In February, he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for some quick thinking while working security at a local club.
“That was, I think it was November 13, that was before my PFL debut in New York. I was just working, I work part-time security at one of the nightclubs out here, the Omnia nightclub,” Ali Walsh recalled, speaking to Cageside Press and other media outlets during Wednesday’s PFL 2 media day. “There was a table in front of us, and I always usually watch who’s at the table, so I know who’s going in, who’s going out, who doesn’t belong there, who does.”
Ali Walsh continued, saying that “I saw this girl, she came there, she was sober, acting normal, and within five to ten minutes, she was black out drunk. And that’s pretty unrealistic.” What looked very suspicious to the martial artist was a man trying to walk the intoxicated clubgoer out the door. “It didn’t look right. It didn’t feel right. I didn’t see this guy at the table with the girls. So it just looked very fishy. So I stopped them, I brought in another security guard, and I had them separated.”
As luck would have it, the woman’s friend had been in search of her. “I asked her friend, ‘do you know this guy?’ She said ‘no I’ve never met him.’ So I’m like okay, there’s red flag number one.”
Walsh then asked the suspect if he knew the girl in question, who replied that “I know her like a sister, I’ve known her growing up.” So on and so forth. That’s when Walsh knew he was being lied to. “We basically just kicked the guy out, we kicked him out for trespassing. I actually didn’t know until the day I got the certificate that he actually had the girl’s phone. So who knows what could have happened. I definitely assumed he spiked her drink or something like that, because nobody acts like that five minutes after drinking.”
It’s the sort of quick thinking that can save lives. Now, Ali Walsh returns to his other job, which in this case might actually be the safer scenario. Regardless, fighting is clearly in the blood for the grandson of the greatest boxer of all time, but Ali Walsh believes he inherited more than just talent.
“I think what was inherited was the will to learn. I don’t think it’s just fight IQ, I think it was the will to get better,” he suggested. “After practice, I do homework. There’s fighters that I watch, where I take notes. I try to take their habits, tactics, things that they look at, and then I try to mould it into my own.”
“You can’t watch Max Holloway and 100% replicate his fighting, but you can take certain habits and tactics that he does, and apply it to yourself and mix it your own way. That’s the beauty of mixed martial arts — it’s mixed martial arts, so it’s an art.” Walsh sees it like mixing in elements of Picasso’s style, rather than trying to replicate the artist. “That’s the beauty of mixed martial arts, you can do stuff like that. And I try to take advantage of it.”
Watch the full PFL 2 media day appearance by Biaggio Ali Walash above.
