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ONE Championship's dominant strawweight world champion Joshua 'The Passion' Pacio is not the kind of guy you want to annoy. The long-running 125-pound king has dominated his division like no one in ONE history.
In one of his more notable wins, Pacio pulled off a frightening finish of fellow Filipino fighter Roy Doliguez in 2017. The bout gained notoriety for Doliguez's underhanded move of putting his fingers on Pacio's eyes in order to get out of a guillotine choke.
Early on in the fight, the two were neck-and-neck on the ground. It was counter after counter, reversal after reversal.
It wasn't until Pacio caught Doliguez in a deep guillotine choke that the Filipino fighter gouged Pacio's eyes. In any sport, cheating in order to get out of a tight spot is not just frowned upon, it's absolutely abhored.
Whether or not Doliguez did it on purpose, the incident certainly lit a fire under Pacio. Come the second round, 'The Passion' wasted no time taking his opponent out. The Team Lakay standout put Doliguez away with a picture-perfect spinning backfist that will remain in the annals of MMA lore for many years.
Watch the full fight here:
ONE Championship strawweight king Joshua Pacio has a new challenger in Jarred Brooks
On the main card of ONE 156, ONE strawweight rising star Jarred 'The Monkey God' Brooks soundly handed the undefeated Bokang Masunyane his first loss. With his dominant one-sided win, Brooks officially became the No.1 contender to champion Joshua Pacio's strawweight belt.
The American didn't waste time calling out the champion ahead of their eventual bout:
Pacio, true to his mild-mannered ways, sent his American archrival a reply:
"Congratulations to @the_monkeygod for winning the spot 👏 👏 👏 Awesome performance 🔥 I’ll See You Soon 👀 💪🏽🔥"
Pacio is a two-time ONE Championship strawweight world champion. He had just about cleaned out his weight class before Jarred Brooks entered ONE.
One could make the argument, however, that Brooks is on a different level from the others that have faced Pacio in the past. The former amateur wrestling standout has a holistic skillset, excelling in almost every facet of the game. In just three fights in the promotion, Brooks showed off his powerful wrestling, surprisingly good striking, and vice-like jiu-jitsu.
This clash is going to be one of the best of the year.
