“He already knows what’s coming” – Lito Adiwang believes Joshua Pacio will be more prepared for Jarred Brooks redo

If 2023 was a big year in the career of Joshua Pacio, it was only so that he could build towards bigger and better things in the new year.

‘The Passion’ came in to 2023 off the back of a loss to Jarred Brooks at ONE 164, which saw him lose his ONE strawweight MMA world championship.

After proving that he is worthy of a rematch by defeating Mansur Malachiev in October, he is set to run it back with Brooks on March 1 at ONE’s debut in Qatar.

His fellow Filipino contender, Lito Adiwang, is confident that Joshua Pacio will make some significant improvements and adjustments from his first encounter with the defending champion.

He told ONE fans to expect a better version of the former kingpin at ONE 166, now that he knows what he is up against:

“I respect Jared Brooks, but Joshua is doing his part to improve, and I know that he has the tools to stand toe to toe with Jarred. He already knows what’s coming, he’s already felt Jarred’s strength and intensity. He’ll be better equipped to handle it now.”

Joshua Pacio’s improvements shone in his latest victory

A lot of people were looking at Mansur Malachiev as the new title challenger in the strawweight division but Joshua Pacio had other plans.

In handing him the first loss of his career, the ex-titleholder demonstrated his excellent takedown defense once again.

Where he failed to capitalize against Brooks the first time around was by making the most of their striking exchanges, but this wasn’t the case at ONE Fight Night 15.

Pacio will look to take this momentum with him into the rematch where he will try to once again reclaim the strawweight crown that was once his.