Diego Paez eyes ONE Fight Night 32 as second chance to make a first impression

Flyweight Muay Thai star Diego Paez is on a mission to show the world there’s more to him following an unfortunate debut earlier this year.

The mullet-rocking mauler meets spirited youngster Johan Ghazali at ONE Fight Night 32. The pair square off in flyweight Muay Thai at Bangkok, Thailand’s Lumpinee Stadium, on Friday, June 6.

Paez’s debut didn’t go down the way he had desired. He met former rival Sean Climaco this past February at ONE Fight Night 28. The pair had previously fought twice outside of ONE, battling to a draw in their most recent affair.

In their third clash earlier this year, the stage couldn’t have gotten any bigger or better for Paez to seek ultimate revenge on. But that wouldn’t be the case. On top of an intriguing trilogy bout, the ONE Championship debut jitters came into effect.

He allowed his American compatriot to set the tone. Paez grew into the bout, but Climaco had managed to outstrike him with strong jabs and heavy kicks en route to a split-decision win.

Heading into his second contest under the ONE banner, Paez is determined not to let that happen again. He feels much more settled, and he’s relishing the opportunity to clash with one of the promotion’s brightest stars.

“This is my second fight under ONE, and I didn’t get the performance that I would like to get in the first one, but I’m excited to go out there and really establish myself in this promotion and get the respect that I deserve,” he said.

“I think this fight is going to be probably the best fight of the night.”

Diego Paez “would love to finish” Johan Ghazali at ONE Fight Night 32

Diego Paez is confident of victory versus teenage phenom Johan Ghazali. But he predicts that it won’t come easily.

Ghazali is one of the fastest rising stars in ONE Championship. He’s shown his devastating power to graduate from the Friday Fights series onto the mainstage, where the victories have kept on coming.

“Jojo” has suffered setbacks along the way, though. His first promotion loss came versus Nguyen Tran Duy Nhat in June 2024 at ONE 167. After a prompt return to the win column, he suffered another setback to Johan Estupinan this past January at ONE 170. So the youthful Malaysian-American hopes to return to the winner’s circle this week.

With that in mind, Paez believes he can give the youngster another stern lesson at ONE Fight Night 32. And he plans to do so by knockout. But before that, he intends to use the opportunity as a chance to flaunt the depths of his technical prowess.

“I would love to finish him, but I want to be able to show all of my skills and my toughness, as well,” he said.

“So I think ideally, it would be cool to have a back-and-forth, hard-fought victory, and for it to end not by the judges, but by a finish, like a technical knockout or a knockout. I think that would be ideal for me and also the fans.”