“He walks through him” - Johan Ghazali confident Superbon will unify world titles in impending showdown with Masaaki Noiri

Johan Ghazali sees it all up close. The 18-year-old Malaysian-American phenom has been training at Superbon Training Camp in Bangkok, training directly under the man many still view as the division’s gold standard.

That access has given Ghazali a front-row look at ONE featherweight kickboxing champ Superbon’s preparation ahead of a massive unification showdown with the newly-minted interim champ Masaaki Noiri. And, if you ask him, Noiri will be no challenge for Superbon at all:

"In kickboxing, nobody can beat Superbon besides Chingiz Allazov," Ghazali told ONE Championship. "I feel Superbon will walk through Noiri. He’s fought a lot of similar styles. He’s fought Marat Grigorian, he’s fought Giorgio Petrosyan, and a lot of other strong fighters. So I’m sure he walks through him."

Noiri shocked fans in March when he TKO’d Tawanchai PK Saenchai at ONE 172 in Saitama, immediately staking his claim to the interim ONE featherweight kickboxing belt.

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Superbon praises interim featherweight kickboxing king Masaaki Noiri’s meteoric rise: “He's already that good”

While Johan Ghazali is firmly in his teammate’s corner, Superbon himself is measured. He’s seen the tape. He knows what Noiri brings, and he’s not underestimating the former two-division K-1 champ.

"No, I think he's already that good, because he's a K1 champion before, and he's a big star in Japan. On this level, all the fighters are good; it's not easy to fight and it's not easy to be the champion, and it's not easy to be here in ONE Championship."

The title unification bout, which hasn’t been officially announced yet but is widely expected to take place later this year, could be one of the biggest featherweight kickboxing clashes in recent memory. For now, Superbon is putting in the hours, and Ghazali is watching it all unfold.

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