On Saturday, December 3, ONE strawweight world champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio will defend his belt against #1-ranked contender Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks. Finally, Pacio vs Brooks will grace the ONE circle.
The high-stakes showdown will headline ONE 164: Pacio vs Brooks, which takes place in Manila, Philippines. The home of Joshua Pacio.
Joshua Pacio vs. Jarred Brooks
The two stars have been on a collision course ever since Brooks joined the world’s largest martial arts organisation in November 2021, where Brooks defeated the Team Lakay teammate of Pacio Lito Adiwang via arm triangle choke.
Brooks followed up that victory by dominating #3-ranked Hiroba Minowa en route to a unanimous decision win and then putting unbeaten #2-ranked Bokang Masunyane to sleep with a rear-naked choke inside the first round of their world title eliminator.
That brought “The Monkey God’s” record up to 19-2 (1 NC) and earned him his long-awaited shot at the Filipino kingpin.
Let’s not forget the Champ, Pacio has been in spectacular form, too.
Although he briefly lost the ONE strawweight world title by a controversial split decision against Yosuke Saruta in January 2019, “The Passion” won it back three months later by knocking out the Japanese athlete with a well-disguised knee to the head.
The Filipino has been on a roll ever since – he submitted compatriot Rene Catalan with an arm-triangle choke, edged out former titleholder Alex Silva via split decision, and then capped off his trilogy with Saruta by knocking him out in three and a half minutes.
Originally, Pacio vs Brooks was slated to headline ONE 158 this past June, but a scheduling conflict prevented the match from going ahead.
But now, the stars have aligned, and these two exciting warriors will end 2022 with a bang on the defending titleholder’s home turf.
Image Credits ONE Championship
