I'm related to the greatest boxer ever but changed my name to make my own way – it worked until Mike Tyson showed up
NICO ALI WALSH has the most famous surname in boxing history but he kept it a secret - until Mike Tyson blew his cover.
The 24-year-old is the grandson of Muhammad Ali - affectionately known as The Greatest.
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Nico's parents - including Ali's daughter Rasheda whose sister Laila was a champion boxer - never wanted him to enter the family business.
But by 14, Ali Walsh - with the help of his grandfather - convinced his family to allow him to start boxing.
It came with just one condition though, he had to hide his iconic Ali surname.
Ali Walsh told SunSport: 'Of course, I left out the name. Even back when I was 15 years old, my full name is Nico Ali Walsh, but I cut out the Ali.
'I said my name is Nico Walsh, but they found out somehow. My parents were not on board with saying Ali either.
"I don't know how, they would just start announcing it at amateur fights. So it didn't last long. The incognito version of myself didn't last very long.'
It turns out boxing great Tyson - a close friend of hero Ali's - might have played a part in Nico's secret being exposed.
He revealed: 'It probably started around my third amateur fight because I started having weird people show up to my fights.
'Like my third amateur fight was here in Vegas and Mike Tyson found out I was fighting and he and his wife Kiki texted my mum and was like, 'Hey, we heard Nico's fighting here. Mike wants to come to the fight.'
'So Mike ended up coming to my amateur fight and it was just him, whoever he was with, and then my family.
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'So there was like 7/8 people in the crowd, and it was just us, so I guess people may have started realising it.
'I started having weird people show up to my fights. Why is Mike Tyson showing up to this guy's amateur fight? And he left right after.
'So that may have contributed to people finding out.'
With Ali Walsh's name was no longer secret, he had close to 30 amateur bouts before turning professional in 2021.
And he did so with legendary promoter Bob Arum, who staged some of Ali's most iconic fights.
By now, Ali Walsh is no stranger to rivals looking to make a name for themselves by trying to tear down his namesake - even behind closed doors.
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He said: 'Sparring and training, it's never 100 per cent of the time.
'Sparring is where you work on things and you do certain things, but whenever I go outside of someone that I directly know, they're trying to knock me out in sparring.
'Everyone who spars me is trying to knock me out. So it's very annoying, but I've gotten that my entire professional career.
'I had that sometimes in my amateur career but now it's like people are coming at me trying to absolutely take my head off in the gym.
'And they do it in fights too, which fights are different. I don't care what you do in a fight, but in the gym, it gets ridiculous at some points.'
Ali Walsh is now 15 fights into his pro career, with 12 wins, two losses and one no-contest.
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He bounced back with victory against Ebenezer Sowah in Guinea in May following shock defeat to Juan Carlos Guerra Jr last February.
And Ali Walsh has stayed true to his roots by refusing to entertain cash-grab fights against the likes of Jake Paul.
The middleweight prospect even turned down a $3million (£2.2m) offer to fight the 11-1 YouTuber-turned-boxer last year.
Ali Walsh explained: 'I can't be mad at these pro guys that are calling him out, they want the money.
'And obviously, the money they would be getting, they would be getting paid millions to knock out a guy that's way below the skill level of the guy that they get paid far less to fight.
'So it makes sense for these guys, but for me in particular, that's not something I want to be remembered by.
'It would really be just tainting my legacy to be getting involved with something like that.
'I feel like whenever people try to tell me, 'Nico, you should have done this or you should have done that.' No one can tell me what to do with the Ali name except for an Ali.
'So nobody outside of my family will understand what I'm talking about. So I don't take advice from anyone else, who tries to come at me with that kind of stuff.'
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