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I always showed him my sparring and my training clips,' Walsh said. He remembers trying football for about '48 hours' before he figured the sport wasn't for him.ДЄfter committing himself to boxing, Walsh made sure to tap into the knowledge his grandfather accrued over his stellar career. Given his grandfather's success, being a boxer felt like 'destiny' for Walsh. And I was like: 'Wow, my grandfather must be a special guy.'' Chow was saying Happy birthday to my grandfather.' I was only 11 years old and I loved him. 'I went to his birthday party and I was seeing a bunch of celebrities that I only looked up to on TV.

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Living in the shadow of one of sport's biggest names isn't something most have to deal with.ДЇor Walsh, when he was growing up, Ali - who had a 56-5 professional boxing record in which he beat such legends as Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Sonny Liston - was just 'grandpa.'ДЄlthough his amateur opponents upped their game when they realized who they were sharing the ring with - 'If I fought an average Joe amateur fighter, he would turn into Joe Frazier when he fought me,' Walsh remembers - it was Ali's 70th birthday party when he realized how much people outside his family loved his grandfather. And I want to remember the shorts for being just that, and that's why I'm probably not going to ever wear them again.' 'I wasn't supposed to wear them my first fight, but destiny and fate had it that I had to wear them. While the shorts brought him some good luck and a little extra energy, after the fight, Walsh said he wouldn't be wearing them again, although he wasn't ruling out finishing his career in them. I couldn't have dreamt of a better night.' But he was alive on Saturday night and it was through me, it was through the shorts and it was just such a blessing the whole night was. I've only seen that on black and white clips on YouTube. And in so many ways, through the chants in the crowd, they were chanting: 'Ali,' which I've never seen before. 'I really do feel that he was alive that night. 'And that was one of the many things that brought my grandfather to life on Saturday night. It was just a crazy, crazy night,' he remembers. However, after his custom shorts were not ready in time, it just so happened that the only other shorts he had to fight in were the ones his grandfather had given him.ДЄnd just having something so closely connected to his grandfather with him for the fight gave him that extra little bit of motivation he needed. Walsh never planned to wear the shorts though they were only initially meant to be an item of memorabilia. When Walsh stepped into the ring for his professional debut, he was wearing an item of clothing he thought might bring him luck.Дucking under the ropes and into the ring in Oklahoma, Walsh was wearing white Everlast shorts which had previously belonged to Ali and were passed down after he died in 2016. READ: The boxing championships aimed at 'disrupting homophobia, transphobia, hatred in sport' It's just really humbling and it's something that I'm very happy to do.' 'It's kind of been a funny thing between me, SugarHill (Steward, his trainer) and my strength and conditioning coach, they've been calling me 'The Ghost' because I brought him back. And so I would say it's more pride now and I'm blessed that that's the way it's turned out because it hasn't always been that way.'Д«ut in his debut victory, Walsh says he's had fans of his iconic grandfather reaching out to him saying he'd 'brought him back to life.' So I've really been trying to embrace it. But I cannot run from it, especially in the sport I'm in now. and I was just running from the name so much. 'And I've just recently started to embrace the name because I've been hiding from it for so long. And it's really annoying at times but that's how it's been,' the 21-year-old told CNN. 'I've always felt the need to be on my best behavior.

However, Walsh didn't let that pressure get to him as he won his professional debut, beating Jordan Weeks with a first-round stoppage at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Catoosa, Oklahoma, in August.ДЄnd ahead of his second bout on Saturday, October 23 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Walsh told CNN that he is finally starting to embrace the pressure that has been there his 'whole life' being related to Ali. Not only did his association with Ali bring attention, but as an aspiring boxer, being the grandson of one of the greatest to ever step into the ring brought pressure and expectations.

It is just a face of boxing legend Muhammad Ali.Д«ut questions arose when people asked about his connection to the great man - he is his grandson. Nico Ali Walsh used to wear a jacket to cover the tattoo on his forearm to avoid drawing attention to it.