Joshua Pacio meets Yosuke Saruta for ONE Strawweight World Championship

The main event of ONE Championship’s maiden card for 2019 gets a massive facelift, as a new challenger will be stepping in to face reigning ONE Strawweight World Champion Joshua “The Passion” Pacio of the Philippines.

Sharing the cage with Pacio at ONE: ETERNAL GLORY will be Japanese grappler Yosuke Saruta, who will be replacing compatriot Hayato Suzuki, who was initially tapped to be the challenger for the ONE Strawweight World Championship.

The news was announced on the ONE Championship website on 19 December, exactly a month before event night.

The 31-year old Saruta, a native of Saitama, Japan, announced his arrival to the ONE Championship strawweight division with an impressive debut which saw him dominate former strawweight title holder Alex “Little Rock” Silva at ONE: DESTINY OF CHAMPIONS last 7 December.

The performance was enough to earn him a crack at the world title in just his sophomore ONE Championship appearance.

It won’t be his first time in the big dance however, as he’s held world championship gold before.

Prior to making his debut on the ONE Championship stage, Saruta was a champion in the Japan-based promotion Shooto, capturing the promotion’s strawweight championship back in 2017.

Pacio, meanwhile, is enjoying his first run as world champion after finally dethroning two-time champion Yoshitaka Naito back in September.

The 22-year old Team Lakay product, who’s one of five Filipino world champions in ONE Championship, hope to keep the momentum going in 2019 with a big win over Saruta in his first title defense.

ONE: ETERNAL GLORY happens at the Istora Senayan.