KUALA LUMPUR: Promising young Muay Thai fighter and One Championship contender Johan 'Jojo' Ghazali Zulfikar is proud to be Malaysian.
The 17-year-old became a hit with sports fans after securing a 36 second knockout (KO) win against former One Flyweight Muay Thai World Title contender Edgar Tabares at the One Fight Night 17 On Prime Video on Dec 8.
After his win, a YouTube video by Johan which was uploaded back in October resurfaced online following online "squabbles" on the teenager's home state.
In the seven-minute video, Johan was answering fan questions including one on where he is from, and the SMK St Thomas, Kuching student admitted that it was one of the most frequent questions he had to answer.
Johan said his grandfather was from Lenggong, Perak and his father grew up in the federal capital.
However, Johan reiterated that it should not matter which state he is from because he is carrying the name of Malaysia at his fights.
"My target has always been to carry and uphold the name of Malaysia, not each of the states because I'm now fighting on the world stage and I want to bring the Malaysia name.
"So for those who keep on commenting 'congratulations anak Perak or 'congratulations anak Sarawak' just 'congratulations anak Malaysia' would suffice," said Johan.
Johan had a five consecutive win streak in his One Championship record with a total of four knockouts.