Joshua Pacio excited to defend ONE strawweight title in front of Filipino fans

ONE strawweight champion Joshua Pacio. Photo from ONE Championship

MANILA, Philippines–ONE Strawweight champion Joshua Pacio is relishing the chance to finally be making his title defense in front of Filipino fans at ONE 146: Pacio vs Brooks in December.

His long awaited clash against Jarred Brooks is set for December 3 at Mall of Asia Arena in the promotion’s return to Manila.

The Team Lakay stalwart is looking forward to hearing the cheers from the fans in the stands again.

“Finally after almost two years, ONE Championship is back here in the Philippines! I’m really excited because the last time I fought there was no audience and hopefully there will be one when we do the event here in the Philippines,” Pacio said.

The last time Pacio saw action was when he pummeled rival Yosuke Saruta  in the culmination of their trilogy fight at ONE: Revolution in September 2021 to defend his strap.

No stranger to pressure, Pacio is motivated than ever when he finally faces Brooks, who has gone 3-0 in ONE Championship to become the No. 1 contender in the stacked strawweight division.

“It motivates me even more because I’ll be defending my world title in front of my countrymen and I hope that I won’t be the only fighter from the gym to fight in this card. I wish that there’d be five or even six of us from Team Lakay so that it’ll be an awesome experience.”

Pacio is on a four-fight winning streak with all of those victories coming in world title fights.

The last time he fought in the Philippines was for ONE: Fire and Fury where he scored a split decision win over former world champion Alex Silva in January 2020.