Jarred Brooks blasts Joshua Pacio’s decision to leave Team Lakay: “Eduard Folayang doesn’t know Joshua Pacio”

Reigning ONE strawweight MMA world champion Jarred Brooks doesn’t think too highly of Joshua Pacio’s move from Team Lakay to Lions Nation MMA.

After Pacio surrendered the strawweight MMA world title to ‘The Monkey God’ at ONE 164 in December 2022, the Filipino fan favorite was determined to bounce back — as he often does. His path to redemption began by leaving his longtime gym, Team Lakay, for Lions Nation MMA.

Thus far, the move appears to have had a positive effect, as evidenced by Joshua Pacio’s impressive performance against Russian standout Mansur Malachiev at ONE Fight Night 15 in October. However, Jarred Brooks has a different opinion.

“I think he's going to have a worse camp than what he did with Team Lakay, man because Team Lakay that was his whole thing, when let's just say when I have my coach James right,” Brooks told The MMA Superfan. “James, he is on my ass every single day and he's just like you're gonna do this, you're gonna do this he knows me like the back of his hand, right?

“Eduard Folayang doesn’t know Joshua Pacio like the back of his hand. Liike Mark [Sangiao] does.”

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Jarred Brooks and Joshua Pacio run it back at ONE 166: Qatar

On Friday, March 1, Jarred Brooks will defend his ONE strawweight MMA world title when he runs it back with Pacio as a part of a loaded ONE 166 card inside the Lusail Sports Arena in Qatar.

Brooks steps into his ONE world title defense with a perfect MMA record inside the Circle, dispatching his first four opponents, including wins against notable strawweight contenders like Lito Adiwang, Hiroba Minowa, Bokang Masunyane, and the aforementioned Joshua Pacio.

Overall, ‘The Monkey God is 20-2, establishing himself as one of the best pound-for-pound strawweights in the world.

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE 166: Qatar live and for free on Friday, March 1.