KUALA LUMPUR: Muay Thai phenom Muhammad Johan Ghazali Zulfikar is confident of continuing his unbeaten run in the ONE Championship series at ONE 167 in Thailand on June 7.
He will face his toughest opponent so far at the Impact Arena in Bangkok, Vietnamese Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat, a five-time World Muaythai Federation world title holder and a former Southeast Games gold medallist.
The pair will face-off in the flyweight category.
Johan, 17, is less than half the age of his opponent and is wary of what Duy Nhat, 35, is capable of.
"He is very versatile. He has hands, he has elbows, he has knees, he has kicks. But the one thing that stands out is his head kicks," Johan told onefc.com recently.
"I've seen him throw a few head kicks and they can get dangerous. But I've prepared for it (the match). I'm ready for it. So we should have an answer for whatever he throws."
Johan, whose nickname is Jojo, believes his youth will give him an advantage in the bout.
"I'm younger, I recover faster, I'm stronger, so I feel like this is something I can guarantee on my end," he added.
"I think I'm going to be in for a tough start. But I know he will get tired in the later rounds, which will then make it easier for me to knock him out."
Johan has won a perfect record in the ONE Championship so far, winning five out of five matches so far, with four of them being knockouts.
He took just 36 seconds to dispatch Mexican Edgar Tabares in his last fight in December.