“He took some of my best punches” - Johan Estupinan surprised by Johan Ghazali’s resilience in ONE 170 scrap

Johan Estupinan praised Johan Ghazali for taking several of his "best punches."

On January 24, Estupinan faced arguably the toughest test of his ONE Championship tenure thus far, a flyweight Muay Thai bout at ONE 170 against fellow highly-touted prospect Johan Ghazali.

Estupinan increased his stock with an impressive unanimous decision win against Ghazali. Following his fifth promotional appearance, the Columbian striker had this to say during an interview with journalist Nick Atkin:

"I saw him shaking and I went for it. But, to be honest, he’s very very strong. He’s very powerful and can take a lot of punches. He took some of my best punches."

Johan Estupinan had more than one reason to celebrate at ONE 170. Earlier in the night, the 22-year-old's twin brother, Jordan Estupinan, made his promotional debut and defeated Freddie Haggerty, the younger brother of Jonathan Haggerty, by unanimous decision.

ONE 170 featured several entertaining knockouts, leading to $50,000 performance bonuses for featherweight Muay Thai champion Tawanchai, bantamweight MMA champion Fabricio Andrade, interim bantamweight Muay Thai champion Nabil Anane, and lightweight Muay Thai contender Sinsamut Klinmee.

The replay of ONE 170, including Estupinan's back-and-forth battle with Johan Ghazali, can be seen for free by North American and Canadian viewers via watch.one.fc.com.

Watch Estupinan's entire interview with Atkin below:

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Johan Estupinan could draw ranked flyweight opponent next time out

Johan Estupinan made his ONE Championship debut in May 2024. The 22-year-old has since remained impressively active, securing knockout wins against Kouta Omori, Sean Climaco, and Zakaria El Jamari.

Estupinan's latest performance against Johan Ghazali proved that he is a legitimate contender in the ONE flyweight Muay Thai division.

Therefore, 'Panda Kick' could be destined for a massive opportunity to defeat a fellow top contender like number five-ranked Nakrob Fairtex or number three-ranked Elias Mahmoudi.

It should be noted that the ONE flyweight Muay Thai world title is vacant due to Rodtang missing weight for his last fight. 'The Iron Man' is now focused on his non-title flyweight kickboxing bout against Takeru Segawa, scheduled for the ONE 172 main event on March 23.

ONE Championship might wait for Rodtang to return to the division for the vacant title or give two other contenders the chance to secure gold.