Biaggio Ali Walsh almost left Texas in a wheelchair. The grandson of the Greatest found out the hard way that pedigree doesn’t protect your spine. On Saturday night at PFL Austin, undefeated prospect Gamid Khizriev treated the hyped boxer-turned-grappler like a human pretzel. It was ugly.
Khizriev didn’t waste time. He wanted the floor. Takedowns came easy, almost insulting in their simplicity. Walsh scrambled, desperate to find his feet, but the gap in grappling IQ was a chasm. Khizriev took the back. He locked in a suffocating body triangle. When Walsh tried to turn and escape the trap, Khizriev trapped his leg, torqueing his spine into a sickening, modified twister. Walsh tapped. Fast. The clock stopped at 2:32 of the very first round.
Then came the panic. For a few tense moments, Walsh couldn’t move. He lay draped over his opponent’s leg, face contorted in pure agony. The arena went quiet. Fortunately, the young fighter eventually stood up under his own power, seemingly dodging a trip to the local trauma ward. He survived, but the hype train took a massive hit.
