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Things didn’t exactly go as planned for Joshua Pacio in his rematch with Jarred Brooks at ONE 166: Qatar earlier this month.
The battle between the heated rivals was marred with controversy after ‘The Monkey God’ got disqualified for an illegal head spike a minute into the opening round.
The sight of Pacio lying motionless after landing on his neck was as worrisome as can be. Fortunately, ‘The Passion’ escaped serious harm and made a full recovery.
The proud Filipino warrior also reclaimed his ONE strawweight MMA world title in the process.
Despite the shocking turn of events, Joshua Pacio remains grateful through it all.
After all, the 28-year-old believes his unwavering faith will allow him to weather whatever storm that comes his way.
The Lions Nation MMA athlete said in his recent interview with The MMA Superfan on YouTube:
“I can say that that once again I am now the king of the strawweight division, everything happens for a reason. This wasn’t an accident. God has a purpose why this happened, and I’ll just trust Him. Even in this journey, I know there are still so many things I can achieve. This is the mountaintop, I’ll climb back down, there’s another mountain, so I’ll just trust Him in this journey.”
Watch Joshua Pacio’s full interview here:
Joshua Pacio says harrowing incident with Jarred Brooks was a complete accident
Pacio and Brooks have already mended fences after an emotional encounter a day after ONE 166.
‘The Passion,’ for one, believes the American meant him no harm.
The new 125-pound world titleholder was also touched by his rival’s sincere gesture and said he respected him more after the incident.
Joshua Pacio explained in the same interview:
“I don’t think this is Jarred Brooks’ fault, because everything happens inside the Circle because we’re in a fight. I have nothing against Jarred Brooks. I just think it just happened. It can also be the case that what happened all boiled down to his muscle memory with him because he’s a wrestler. It happens.”
