Teen phenom Johan Ghazali would love a quick turnaround following his stunning sub-one-minute victory over Edgar Tabares at ONE Fight Night 17.
After scoring four straight victories on the ONE Friday Fights series, the 17-year-old Malaysian-American earned the biggest win of his career on Friday night by dispatching Mexico’s first-ever WBC Muay Thai world champion, Edgar Tabares, in just 36 seconds.
After making quick work of his opponent, Johan Ghazali would like to turn right around and fight again before the end of 2023, but he has a few things to take care of before stepping back inside the ring.
“I mean if it was up to me, I would like to fight next week,” he said at the post-fight press event. “But I have to go home, you know, I have to get my driver's license, I have to finish school first. I'll finish school in February so I mean March maybe, I don't know. When I finish school I'll be back as soon as I can, so yeah.”
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Johan Ghazali is flattered by being compared to Rodtang
Fighting five times in the last 10 months, Johan Ghazali has an incredible 80% finish rate, putting away four of his opponents by way of knockout.
His impressive start has earned comparisons to one of the greatest Muay Thai practitioners in the world today, Rodtang Jitmuangnon. And while he is flattered to be in the same conversation as ‘The Iron Man,’ Ghazali is more focused on being the first-ever ‘Jojo’ rather than the next Rodtang.
“I don't want to be remembered as like the next Rodtang, you know. I want to be remembered as the first ‘Jojo’, the first Johan Ghazali. So, I'm grateful, I'm honored to be on the same level, as not on the same level as him, but like being mentioned with him. But yeah I want to be my own person.”
If you missed any of the action or want to relive an epic night in ONE Championship history, the ONE Fight Night 17 replay can be watched anytime on demand via Amazon Prime Video in North America.