Notebook: Muhammad Ali's grandson set to turn pro with Top Rank

Pascal fails another drug test; Loma returns; Quick hits

Muhammad Ali’s grandson is about to embark on a professional boxing career.

Nico Ali Walsh, a 20-year-old middleweight, has signed a promotional agreement with Top Rank and will make his pro debut in a four-round fight on Aug. 14 on ESPN, Top Rank announced on Thursday.

Ali Walsh is the son of retired U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Robert Walsh and Rasheda Ali Walsh, one of Ali’s daughters.

“I’m doing what I love,” Ali Walsh said. “Signing with Top Rank is a dream come true. I’m going to have fun on Aug. 14 and the next time I fight. Top Rank will give me the name, date and location, and I’ll have a great time. I am honored to continue the fighting legacy that my grandfather started. It is a responsibility I don’t take lightly.”

The Ali family has long had close ties to Top Rank. Chairman Bob Arum promoted Muhammad Ali for many years — 27 of his fights in all — and was close to him. The first fight Arum ever promoted in his 55-year career in boxing was Ali’s heavyweight championship defense against George Chuvalo on March 29, 1966 in Toronto. Other Ali fights Arum promoted included the famed third fight between Ali and Joe Frazier — the legendary “Thrilla in Manila” — Ali-Ken Norton III at Yankee Stadium and both Ali-Leon Spinks title fights.

“Nico’s grandfather was a pretty good fighter,” Arum joked. “Hopefully, Nico will emulate his success. He’s a young man of great character, which one would expect from Muhammad Ali’s grandson.

“Our matchmakers tell me that he is quite capable. I’m looking forward to having a good ride with this young man. If he can come through in the ring he’ll be a major, major attraction and we’ll have a good time, I think, watching him.”

Ali Walsh, a Chicago native living in Las Vegas, had approximately 30 amateur fights. As the story goes, when he was a kid and had his first amateur bout he broke out the famed “Ali Shuffle.” Ali Walsh graduated from high school in 2018 and is a student at UNLV and on track to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business next spring.

In March 2020, Ali Walsh tweeted that he planned to turn pro later in the year, but then the coronavirus pandemic hit and it was delayed.

Ali Walsh’s uncle, Mike Joyce, brokered the deal with Top Rank and will serve as his nephew’s manager, agent and attorney.

“Family history and legacy was a big factor in Nico signing with Top Rank,” Joyce said. “I’ve signed many fighters to Top Rank, and Bob has always treated them fairly. Nico was a little bit in awe of Bob, and it cemented his belief that he was with the right promoter. He thinks this is going to be a historic journey.”

Ali Walsh will be trained by SugarHill Steward, the nephew of the late Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward and trainer of heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury. Richard Slone, who held numerous positions at Steward’s famed Kronk Gym and is now a world-renowned artist, will be in Ali Walsh’s corner as a trainer and cut man.

Ali Walsh said some of earliest memories of being in the gym were with his grandfather, who he called “Poppy,” watching.

“To me, I was hanging out in the gym with my grandfather,” Ali Walsh said. “Sometimes I have to remind myself that he’s everyone’s idol.”

The main event of the Aug. 14 card, which likely will take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is slated to be the third fight between secondary junior bantamweight titlist Joshua Franco (17-1-2, 8 KOs), 25, of San Antonio, and former titlist Andrew Moloney (21-1, 14 KOs), 30, of Australia.

In their first fight, Franco dropped Moloney in the 11th round and won a unanimous decision – 115-112, 114-113, 114-113 – to claim the 115-pound belt in an upset inside the MGM Grand bubble in Las Vegas.

Moloney exercised his contractual right to an immediate rematch and they met again inside the bubble on Nov. 14 and fought to a highly controversial second-round no decision, allowing Franco to retain the belt. Franco suffered eye damage and was unable to continue because of what referee Russell Mora ruled an accidental head butt that could not be found on video replays. The WBA then ordered them to meet again.

Pascal fails another drug test

Jean Pascal has returned yet another positive drug test, this time for two of the four banned performance-enhancing drugs he had already recently tested positive for that caused him to be dumped from a rematch against Badou Jack.

Pascal, the WBA’s secondary light heavyweight world titlist — for now — has tested positive again for the anabolic steroid metabolite of Drostanolone and the drug erythropoietin, which is better known as EPO, according to a source with direct knowledge of the test results. Read my exclusive story at World Boxing News here: https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2021/06/24/jean-pascal-vada-test-substances/

Loma seeks to outdo Teofimo

Former pound-for-pound king and three-division world champion Vasiliy Lomachenko will fight for the first time since he lost his lightweight belts to Teofimo Lopez by decision in October when he will take on Masayoshi Nakatani in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card (10 p.m. ET).

The fight will be only the second nontitle bout of Lomachenko’s 17-fight pro career as he aims he to get back into title position and the fight he wants most — a rematch with Lopez. He picked the much taller Nakatani, a legitimate contender, because he wants to beat him more impressively than Lopez did when they met in a title eliminator in 2019. I wrote about Loma’s return in a feature for The Ring magazine website. Please read that piece here: https://www.ringtv.com/623393-lomachenko-wants-to-beat-nakatani-easier-than-teofimo-did/

Brant wants to earn big fight

Naturally, former secondary middleweight titlist Rob Brant wants to fight for a world title again and would like nothing more than to face the better known 160-pounders. But Brant also wants to prove he deserves those fights. He also wants boxing fans to be excited to see them.

“It’s something I have to earn,” Brant said about facing a top opponent. “You can start calling out guys just because you can, but I think the boxing fans, the boxing community, will call for the top level fights and I am just trying to earn my spot right now.”

Brant will try to do that when he squares off with the fast-rising Janibek Alimkhanuly in a 10-round bout that will be the co-feature of Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing on Saturday’s ESPN+ card at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

I interviewed Brant this week about his upcoming fight and where he hopes it will lead him. Please read the story on The Ring magazine website here: https://www.ringtv.com/623377-rob-brant-hopes-win-over-janibek-alimkhanuly-leads-him-back-to-big-fights/#.YNR9LpQFR2k.twitter

Martinez back in action

WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez will make his third title defense when he takes on Mexican countryman Joel Cordova on Saturday (DAZN, 7 p.m. ET) at the Arena Alcade in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The fight is the headliner of the first of at least four cards on DAZN that will take place in Mexico as part of a deal between pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez’s Canelo Promotions, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn and DAZN.

Martinez (17-1, 13 KOs), 26, was supposed to fight in McWilliams Arroyo on the undercard of Alvarez’s fight with Avni Yildirim in February but pulled out a few days before the bout with a hand injury. He had also been scheduled to face Arroyo last August as well withdrew with a different injury.

Martinez last boxed in October and knocked out Moises Calleros in the second round in Mexico City. Martinez said he is healthy now and excited to fight Cordova (12-4-2, 3 KOs).

“I am happy and excited to be back in the ring and have the chance to make up for lost time,” Martinez said. “I am so disappointed that two fights fell through but here’s hoping to return as I’ve always said, with everything except fear, and to always leave everything on the ring.

“It was the hand thing (in February). I was boxing with super tough guys and in one clash, all good clashes by the way, I hit a guy in the head and my metacarpal swelled. I was going to move forward, but (Alvarez trainer) Mr. Eddy Reynoso and (WBC president) Mr. Mauricio Sulaiman saw the lesion and thought it was too swollen, so they opted to take care of me and not let me fight.”

Cordova, 26, will be taking a major step up in opposition.

“I have boxed with him before. At one time, we sparred with him,” Martinez said. “The guy has a lot of heart. He also likes to go forward and I feel that a fight with a lot of action is going to be very good. And as always, let the best man win.”

In the co-feature, Daniel Matellon (11-0-2, 6 KOs), 33, a Cuba native fighting out of Panama, will make the first defense of his interim junior flyweight title against former strawweight world titlist Jose Argumedo (24-4-1 15 KOs), 32, of Mexico.

Quick hits

While the fight is not yet finalized, Golden Boy is putting the finishing touches on a match between rising welterweight contender Vergil Ortiz Jr. (17-0, 17 KOs), 23, and former world title challenger “Mean Machine” Egidijus Kavaliauskas (22-1-1, 18 KOs), a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. The fight would headline a DAZN card at the Ford Center — the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility — in Frisco, Texas, not far from Ortiz’s hometown of Grand Prairie, Texas. Ortiz is coming off an impressive seventh-round knockout of former junior welterweight titlist Maurice Hooker on Mach 20. Kavaliauskas, 32, a two-time Olympian from Lithuania, challenged Terence Crawford for his welterweight title in December 2019 and got knocked out in the ninth round. He has fought once since, an eighth-round knockout of Mikael Zewski in September.

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Heavyweight Michael Coffie (12-0, 9 KOs), 35, of Brooklyn, New York, will face former title challenger Gerald Washington (20-4-1, 13 KOs), 39, of Vallejo, California, in a scheduled 12-round bout that will headline the PBC on Fox card July 31 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, PBC announced. The co-feature will be an eight-round rematch between James Martin (7-2, 0 KOs), 24, of Philadelphia, and Vito Mielnicki Jr. (8-1, 5 KOs), 19, of Roseland, New Jersey, who lost to Martin via upset eight-round majority decision on April 17. Opening the telecast (8 p.m. ET) will be junior middleweight Joey Spencer (12-0, 9 KOs), 21, of Union City, California, versus Dan Karpency (9-3-1, 4 KOs), 30, of Adah, Pennsylvania, in an eight-rounder.

Show and tell

Other than Babe Ruth there was no bigger American sports star in the 1920s than Jack Dempsey, who reigned as the heavyweight world champion from 1919, when he destroyed Jess Willard in three rounds in Toledo, Ohio, on July 4th to claim the title, until he lost it by decision in his first bout with Gene Tunney before a crowd of more than 120,000 in Philadelphia in September 1926. Dempsey was born on June 24, 1895 — 126 years ago on Thursday. Here’s his rookie card from the 1922 Sporting Champions set in my collection.

Arum/Ali Walsh, Lomachenko-Nakatani, Brant-Alimkhanuly photos: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Martinez photo: Matchroom Boxing