Biaggio Ali Walsh, the grandson of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, is headed to the PFL.
The tournament-based promotion on Wednesday announced a development contract with Walsh, who will compete as an amateur on the preliminary card of the 2022 PFL World Championship. Walsh is expected to go pro during the 2023 PFL season.
“The Professional Fighters League is committed to growing the league and the sport of MMA, it is incumbent upon us to look for the future stars of our sport, we have found one of those stars in Biaggio,” stated PFL CEO Peter Murray in a press release. “We are excited to watch Biaggio’s journey from amateur to professional on the world stage with the PFL.”
A star running back at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Biaggio was named male athlete of the year by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2016. He played two seasons at Cal State before transferring to UNLV, where his football career flagged. In 2020, he announced he was giving up the sport to pursue acting. That same year, he also began training MMA at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
In a 2017 interview with SI.com, Walsh said he grew up boxing with his uncle but never had the passion for the sport as his brother, Nico, who went on to box professionally.
Now, it appears Walsh has fully caught the MMA bug and is leveraging his name to start an MMA career.
“I have a legacy to live up to, a legacy that my grandfather began, that my brother and I continue, I chose to continue that legacy here in the Professional Fighters League,” Walsh stated in the release. “My one and only goal is to one day become a PFL World Champion.”
The 2022 PFL World Championship takes place Nov. 22 at a location to be announced.
