Johan Ghazali carries on a century-plus family lineage of combat sports competitors and will unfurl the next chapter of his own story at ONE Fight Night 35. 'Jojo' will clash with Zakaria El Jamari in an intriguing Muay Thai bout on September 5th and Ghazali appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts with a portion of the discussion touching on how important Muay Thai specifically has been to his family.
Through Ghazali's own efforts in the ONE Circle, he has built a strong fan base in Malaysia as he competes in the high octane, smaller gloves iteration of Muay Thai that ONE Championship has become known for. When asking what stylistic amendments have to be made from traditional Muay Thai that generally uses the bigger gloves versus the ONE Championship permutation of Muay Thai with the smaller, 4oz gloves, Johan Ghazali said,
"I mean I'm lucky because I joined ONE Championship very early on in my career. You know, I signed the contract when I was like 16. So I didn't really fight; I fought in like stadiums with big gloves and five round fights and the traditional Muay Thai, so. But my goal has always been ONE Championship. I knew what I wanted to do. So, I've always been like planning my style and training my style to fit into ONE Championship. Not with 4 oz gloves, but you know, the fast paced, three round style, so."
"You know, thank God that the; I feel like the four oz gloves really fall into my favor. Of course, it's not a God-given talent. You know, I had to work a lot, really hard for me to evolve into this style. Learn how to block properly, how to punch properly without breaking your hands. There's so many obstacles that I went through, but I'm glad to say that I feel like this style suits me, you know, the four ounce gloves suit me."
Johan Ghazali on Muay Thai traditionalists, familial ties to Jack Dempsey's career
Johan Ghazali's dad has been a prominent part of the old school Muay Thai scene in Malaysia and considering that aspect of things, when asked if he has had any Muay Thai traditionalists express certain sentiments to him about the ONE Championship way of promoting the art of eight limbs, Johan Ghazali stated,
"I mean definitely there's always going to be traditionalists. There's always going to be people who say this is how you do it and this is how it's supposed to be. But at the end of the day, you know, everything has to evolve. You know, every sport has to evolve, every person has to evolve. So, I'm just doing what I think is best at the moment. You know, I can stay in traditional Muay Thai and do five round fights, but I wouldn't be in the position that I am."
"You know, I wouldn't have the fan base or the crowd reach that I have. So, I'm just making the best moves possible and I like it, you know. If one day, once Muay Thai changes into something else, I'll be there too, you know, because I'm ready to evolve and I'm ready to; I mean, even if you look at it from a different point of view, you know, this is how the best species stay alive. You know, you have to evolve. If you don't, you're dead. So, yeah."
There is so much combat sports history throughout his family's history that extends even beyond the beautiful art of Muay Thai. In fact, Ghazali's great-grandfather fought on some Jack Dempsey undercards a century ago. When referencing his past relative Eric Johnson Sr. who fought under the moniker of Swede Johnson, in the context of how rich the family's history in fight sports is, Johan Ghazali quipped,
"Absolutely. Combat sports in my family goes way back. So yeah, fighting in my family is, they don't go apart [laughs]."
