Malaysian-American striker Johan “Jojo” Ghazali is a walking highlight reel on the global stage of martial arts — explosive, fearless, and built to finish. On the golf course, he’s just a 19-year-old trying not to put it in the bunker.
That’s the contrast that defines him outside of the fight game. The same guy who tears through opponents spends his downtime on fairways, phone off, mind quiet, chasing a sport that humbles him in ways Muay Thai never has.
It’s a side of him that rarely makes the highlight reels. The version most fans know is the one who gained his eighth promotional triumph when he outclassed Ye Yint Naung by unanimous decision at ONE Friday Fights 141.
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But strip away the bright lights, and there’s a quieter version of “Jojo” that surfaces between camps, one that trades the heavy bag for a set of clubs and the roar of the crowd for open sky and lush green.
His love affair with golf began the way most things do in Ghazali’s world — with pure purpose:
“I started playing golf because 95 percent of successful people play golf and all the people I want to be connected with play it, too.
“So the first time, I was supposed to meet with this guy and he was playing golf on that day, and I said, why not? Let’s go play golf. And then I tried it and I honestly fell in love with it. I genuinely love the sport.”
That first round was a hole-in-one for Ghazali. What began as a networking decision evolved into a genuine obsession that even travels with him to Thailand, where he trains under reigning ONE Featherweight Kickboxing World Champion Superbon.
“Jojo” doesn’t bring his clubs from home, however. The teenage star just rents a set, slips away on the weekends, and finds his version of a reset. He goes alone, too. Nobody from camp joins him.
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He told onefc.com:
“The golf courses are always so nice. And when I’m there, I just turn off my phone and stress-free, you know. All I think about is just hitting the ball.”
He used to think golf was a walk in the park. Most people do, before they’ve ever swung a club. The image of slow-walking retirees and lazy Sunday mornings doesn’t exactly scream difficult, after all.
Plus, given his Muay Thai background — a combat sport that demands supreme conditioning, precise timing, and the courage to stand in front of someone trying to knock your head off — a leisurely round of putting hardly seemed like a challenge worth taking seriously.
Then Ghazali pushed a tee into the turf, set his ball, and sized up his first swing. Seconds later, reality hit harder than any opponent ever had:
“I used to think it was easy. I used to think it was an old man’s sport. But once you try it, you’re like, damn, it’s not easy. My first shot changed my view entirely.
“Every single thing has to come into place. Your head, body, swing, the club face, the focus. So it takes a lot of practice. I’m nowhere near as good as others, but I enjoy it.”
When The Fairway Sharpens The Fighter
The connection between golf and Muay Thai isn’t as strange as it sounds.
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Both sports demand a specific kind of mental clarity: the ability to be fully present, to tune out everything else, and to trust your technique when it matters most.
For Johan Ghazali, golf has become an unlikely classroom for that discipline:
“I have to be able to just zone out, focus and gain better mental clarity. When you play golf, you can’t be thinking of anything else. You have to just be thinking of your swing, your technique and everything. So I think that’s one of the things that golf really is helping me with.”
It runs the other way, too. The hip mechanics and explosive power built through years of Muay Thai have given his swing a natural foundation, and “Jojo” himself is the first to acknowledge it.
The relationship between the two sports, he says, is less of a two-way street and more of a careful exchange. One feeds the mind, the other feeds the body.
The 19-year-old continued:
“I think Muay Thai helps me improve in golf. I don’t think golf helps improve my technique in Muay Thai, but from the mental side, golf helps me with Muay Thai. Physical side, Muay Thai helps me with golf, if you get what I mean.”
The results, though, aren’t always clean, and Ghazali is refreshingly honest about that. What’s clear, though, is that “Jojo” has found a sport that challenges him differently and rewards patience.
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Martial arts will always be first, but a long-term vision on the green is already forming.
He concluded:
“Some days you’re playing like Tiger Woods, the next day you have an off day that you regret even playing. But I still do enjoy it.
“I don’t think I’m going to be doing Muay Thai when I’m much older. But golf, it’s like a muscle memory sport. So, you naturally can play it much longer.”
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