Why Muhammad Ali’s grandson turned down Jake Paul fight

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Nico Ali Walsh turned down an offer to fight with Jake Paul. 

According to The Sun, he refused the offer to avoid tainting his family’s legacy.

Artur Beterbiev, Canelo Alvarez and Anthony Joshua have all expressed their desires to fight Jake Paul, but Ali’s grandson refused the offer.

Nico revealed he snubbed $3million (£2.2m) to fight the YouTuber-turned-prizefighter last year.

He is possibly the only boxing star in the world who is not interested in Paul’s millions.

Ali Walsh told SunSport: “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.”

However, he admitted that if the prize money is around $15million, then he would be dumb to turn it down.

“And if they offered me $15million – I’d be dumb to say no but like it would have to go towards charity or something.

“I would have to make it work morally for me because there’s no reason that I should just be cashing out fighting that kind of guy. I just don’t feel it’s right.

“You would really just be cashing out and then you would never be able to get back into real boxing. I just wouldn’t be respected.”

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