“I’m ready for a five-round war” - Joshua Pacio brushes off talk about potential ring rust heading to ONE 164

ONE strawweight world champion, Joshua Pacio, is ready for a five-round war when he steps into the Circle against No.1-ranked strawweight contender ‘The Monkey God’ Jarred Brooks.

Both fighters have been taking verbal jabs at one another for the better part of 2022. The two Warriors will now close out ONE Championship’s 2022 calendar in front of a hyped crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.

Defending his world title for the first time since September 2021, Joshua Pacio appeared on JM Siasat’s Sparring Sessions to discuss his upcoming bout at ONE 164 on December 3rd and the belief that he may enter the bout with some ring rust due to the long layoff:

“That’s the problem, if you’re the champion you need to wait and I’m waiting for the next opponent. That should’ve been Bokang Masunyane but Jarred Brooks beat him, so here we are.”

Pacio added:

“They said that I will have ring rust but no, man. Throughout this year, I’ve been working on my craft. I’ve been working, I do sparring in this fight camp. I do a lot of sparring so I’m ready for a five-round war.”

Watch the interview below:

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Jarred Brooks expects an all-out war with Joshua Pacio at ONE 164

Jarred Brooks has built a tremendous amount of animosity with ONE strawweight titleholder Joshua Pacio as he called him out from his first match in the promotion.

Fans will finally be treated to an epic showdown in the ONE 164 main event. Speaking to MMA Sucka just days away from the long-awaited strawweight scrap, ‘The Monkey God’ shared his expectations for December 3rd:

"I’m super excited for this bout and it’s years in the making so it’s gonna be definitely not a doozy. We’re gonna be going out and trying to kill each other, I wanna get this done in the first two rounds and see where it goes from there. I’m looking forward for it man, there’s nothing that’s gonna be stopping me on this fight."

ONE 164 will close out a massive double-header in Manila that kicks off with ONE on Prime Video 5 on December 2nd. Airing live and free for all Amazon Prime Video subscribers, the event will feature four massive world title fights.

Hours later, ONE 164 will close out the year with a bag as fans will be treated to the final of the ONE Flyweight Muay Thai World Grand Prix tournament on top of the ONE strawweight world championship headliner.