Muhammad Ali’s grandson, Nico Ali Walsh, has explained why he rejected a multi-million dollar offer to fight Jake Paul.
YouTube influencer Paul has had 10 professional fights, his only loss coming against Tommy Fury.
Ali Walsh, a 10-1 (5) prospect himself, avenged his only pro defeat at the end of last month when he outpointed Sona Akale despite dislocating his shoulder in the fight.
He revealed why he turned down a substantial offer to box Jake Paul.
“Morally it was an easy choice,” Ali Walsh told Sky Sports. “I said no before I even heard the numbers.”
“I believe it was upwards of $3m,” he suggested. “Of course, that would be money that I’ve never made in my career. That would be money that I’ve never even seen before. But is everything really money? That’s how I was raised.
“You’ve got to ask yourself how much does your pride cost? How much are you willing to sell out for? Because that’s exactly how it is, at least in my book. Anyone else can do it. But for me, I’m an Ali, I hold my name in such higher weight, I don’t believe I should be playing in the mud with the likes of Jake Paul.”
Paul publicly acknowledged he had made Ali Walsh an offer, writing on social media: “I been trying to fight this fraud and now he admitted he ducked me but calling me a circus act.”
“It is a circus,” Ali Walsh said of Paul and influencer boxing. “People like the circus… But it’s not something you want to mix with a deadly sport like boxing.
“We’re in a serious sport and it’s not a sport to be taken lightly. I just don’t think playing games, the way Jake Paul is doing, should be mixed in a sport that’s so deadly.”
Paul will still go ahead with a boxing event against Mike Tyson, which has been rescheduled for November after Tyson experienced a medical emergency on a flight in May. Tyson is a heavyweight legend of the sport, but he is 58 years old. Paul is 27.
“I love Mike Tyson,” Ali Walsh said. “I support any decision that he makes. But Mike Tyson is Mike Tyson. He will fight a prime heavyweight. If he was 90 he would do that, that’s his heart. It’s Mike Tyson. He needs to be told when to quit. He won’t be the one to quit.
“I don’t like that fight. I don’t think anyone at that age should be fighting, let alone fighting someone who’s half their age.
“It shows Jake Paul’s character. He has no shame in what he does. He just lives to be viral. He’s just going off whatever will market the best.
“It’s not honourable and it’s not admirable at all. To be able to say I beat Mike Tyson when he’s almost 60 years old – that’s not an accomplishment. It’s not an accomplishment at all.
“I’m fighting for my bloodline and he’s fighting for headlines. That’s the difference between me and him.”
Ali Walsh avenged his defeat to Akale (Photo: Top Rank)
‘That should shut them up’
With his gutsy, one-armed effort against Akale, Ali Walsh believes he has proved his own fighting heart.
“I just must have been a very good actor because everybody’s talking about the last round but it started in the fifth, maybe 30 or 40 seconds in,” he said of dislocating his shoulder.
He threw a hook, and then found he couldn’t move his arm. “Then he just started whaling on my face. I couldn’t bring my hand up to block. I was just confused because that was the first time that’s ever happened to me before.” Ali Walsh recalled.
“It just felt paralysed and I just started eating shots.
“There was so much going on in my mind,” he continued. “It felt like having a nightmare.”
Ali Walsh’s shoulder dislocated in his last fight
He managed to handle the crisis though.
“I’ve always known I have the heart that I do. People have always looked past me because of my grandfather,” Ali Walsh said.
“The critics, which is the majority of the public, they think: ‘Oh he’s an Ali, so he probably doesn’t have the heart of his grandfather, he probably doesn’t have the heart of a fighter’.
“It sucks that I’ve got to prove to critics what I already knew I had. But I think that should shut them up.”