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Johan Ghazali says he and Ramadan Ondash were never really friends ahead of The Inner Circle grudge match

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Johan Ghazali says he and Ramadan Ondash were never really friends ahead of The Inner Circle grudge match

Ramadan Ondash calls it a friendship. His opponent calls it something else entirely.

Johan Ghazali meets Ondash in a flyweight Muay Thai co-main event at The Inner Circle 24 this Friday, July 31, inside Bangkok's Lumpinee Stadium.

The matchup traces back to this past May, when Ondash called Ghazali out moments after beating Suriyanlek Por Yenying in his flyweight debut. Ondash framed the request using words like brotherhood and mutual respect, and Ghazali accepted the fight without hesitation.

“After he called me out, I was like, ‘Okay, I thought, you want to be all brave and call me out,' which is fine. But don't say we're friends or any of that bullsh*t. Like, yeah, I know him. I would say we are friends at arm's length. That's what it is. We're not close friends. We used to fight in the same tournaments all the time. But we never really hung out. We did talk whenever we met, but I never thought of him as a super close friend,†Ghazali said.

“He knows this fight will be the biggest one yet for him. He has to get past me. I'm ready for a fighter of his style and his caliber. I love this type of brawl-style fight. This is always my bread and butter. I see Ramadan as a version of myself from two to three years ago in terms of an experience standpoint. I have the experience now, and I'm a little more mature than him heading into this fight.â€

Johan Ghazali questions Ramadan Ondash's maturity

Johan Ghazali has studied how Ondash handles adversity, pointing specifically to his lone promotional loss this past December. That defeat came against newly crowned ONE Interim Strawweight Muay Thai World Champion Aliff Sor Dechapan.

Coming from a fellow 19-year-old, the assessment carries real weight heading into fight week.

“Ramadan fights very emotionally, and you can see in some fights that his confidence fades after he doesn't get what he wants. We all saw that against Aliff. Those clips tell a lot about his character and the person he is. For me, if I lose, I take it on the chin. I don't go around giving f**king excuses, saying people are running. But he clearly lost. He's not experienced enough or mature enough to be able to accept it,†Ghazali said.

This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM


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MMA

Merab Dvalishvili calls himself a decision machine before Yan trilogy

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Merab Dvalishvili calls himself a 'decision machine' before Yan trilogy
Merab
Dvalishvili can joke about his low finishing rate in the

Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Dvalishvili is scheduled to challenge Petr Yan for
the bantamweight title in a trilogy bout at
UFC 333 on Oct. 24 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. When a fan
recently asked him to predict the outcome, the former champion
jokingly suggested another decision victory.

Merab Dvalishvili jokes about his decision-heavy record ahead
of Petr Yan title fight at UFC 333

Dvalishvili is known for his relentless pressure and wrestling,
with 16 of his 21 career victories coming by decision. The Georgian
has recorded two finishes in the UFC: a technical knockout of
Marlon
Moraes in 2021 and a submission of Sean
O’Malley in his second title defense last year.

Asked how he would beat Yan, Dvalishvili described himself as a
“decision machine.â€

“There are three ways to win: knockout, submission, or decision,â€
Dvalishvili said in a brief
interview. “I’m a decision machine.â€

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MMA

10 UFC wins, zero finishes: Movsar Evloev defends his fighting style

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10 UFC wins, zero finishes: Movsar Evloev defends his fighting style
Movsar
Evloev rejects the notion that fans only want bloody
fights.

Evloev is scheduled to challenge Alexander
Volkanovski for the
Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight title at
UFC 333 on Oct. 24 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. The Russian
challenger has won all 10 of his UFC bouts by decision but believes
fans appreciate his fighting style.

Movsar Evloev argues wrestling can entertain UFC fans ahead of
Volkanovski title fight

The recent departures of Michael
Page and Farid
Basharat have fueled debate about whether winning is enough to
secure a new UFC contract. Neither fighter was re-signed despite a
winning streak, though a lack of finishes has not been established
as the reason for either departure.

Evloev believes finishes are not the only measure of a fighter's
value. He says fans also appreciate tactics, skill and
wrestling.

“I have zero finishes in UFC, but I'm still in the UFC and I'm
fighting for the title,†Evloev told MMA Fighting. “That means only
finishes are not important. To show a good fight is also important.
If you have no finish, you can still show a good fight, an exciting
fight; you can show the beauty of wrestling. There are not just
fans of MMA who just wait for blood. There are so many good fans
who know MMA, and they understand, and maybe because of them I'm
still in the UFC.â€

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MMA

Undefeated fighter blasts UFC, Dana White for creating ‘bullsh*t narrative’ around Farid Basharat release

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Undefeated fighter blasts UFC, Dana White for creating ‘bullsh*t narrative’ around Farid Basharat release

Muhammad Mokaev knows how it feels to win in the octagon and still lose with the UFC.

In 2024, Mokaev experienced a similar rift despite having zero losses on his record, and he is now taking aim at White and the UFC's practices in defense of Basharat.

“When fighters are getting phone calls from bosses telling them, ‘If you keep wrestling like that, you're going to get cut,' then you're basically telling fighters how you want them to fight,†Mokaev wrote on Twitter. “At what point does that cross the line? Isn't that influencing the competition?

“And if you want to release a fighter, fine. But don't then publicly say he was ‘hard to deal with' or create some bullshit narrative about him that could damage his reputation and make other organizations think twice about signing him. Release fighters if you want. Just don't try to damage their careers on the way out.â€

Like Basharat, Mokaev employed a wrestling-heavy style that didn't always produce thrilling back-and-forth contests (though Mokaev did score submission victories in four of his seven UFC wins). The nail in the coffin for Mokaev was a disappointing decision win over Manel Kape at UFC 304, where both men produced little meaningful offense. Making matters worse, Mokaev and Kape had an altercation during fight week, with Mokaev admitting he threw the first punch.

Mokaev is 4-0 since parting ways with the UFC, having finished three of his past four opponents, but remains on the outside looking in with his competition going mostly unrecognized by fans in North America. The 26-year-old is currently No. 7 at 125 pounds in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.

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