By Harry Izzdin
KUCHING: Malaysia’s muaythai champion, Muhammad Johan Ghazali Zulfikar known fondly as Jojo,will forego the chance to represent Malaysia at the SEA Games 2025 to focus on his One Championship stint.
Speaking in a virtual press conference yesterday, jojo shared that he was determined to focus on his upcoming match and believed that it is time to allow new up-and-coming athletes to shine.
“For me, the ONE Championship tournament and the upcoming match I will face are the highest level in muaythai. Therefore, it will be a waste of time to compete in the SEA Games just to win a medal.
“I would like to give the opportunity to younger Malaysian athletes with greater potential to participate in that event,” he said.
The Sarawakian muaythai athlete is scheduled to return to the ONE Championship stage in the flyweight category (ONE 170) on Jan 24, where he will face undefeated Colombian star, Johan Estupinan.
In the same virtual conference, Jojo also spoke of his preparations for the fight against Johan Estupinan, who holds a record of 6-1, shared that his two months of training in Thailand had been extremely beneficial.
“I have improved a lot, especially in terms of physical strength, and my strikes are faster now. In Malaysia, I might not have as many training partners, but in Thailand, I have a lot of quality sparring partners.
“So, for this fight, I feel ready. Estupinan is a formidable fighter, but I believe the record he has built so far is against opponents who are not as strong.”
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with ONE Championship on Dec 14, Jojo disclosed that Estupinan once defeated his older brother Elias Ghazali Zulfikar in an amateur circuit (Dec 2021) and that he’d stop at nothing to exact sweet revenge when he squared off with the Colombian speedster next year.
“I don’t think many of you knew that, but he fought my older brother once. My brother lost, it was a close fight. I’m getting ready to avenge my brother. It will be a good fight, definitely,” he said.
