Jarred Brooks says Joshua Pacio is a much better striker than Mansur Malachiev: “Mansur isn’t too savvy on the feet”

ONE strawweight MMA world champion Jarred Brooks is high on the striking abilities of Joshua Pacio and believes it will be key in his scheduled showdown with Mansur Malachiev this week.

‘The Monkey God’ shared his take to the South China Morning Poston on the featured strawweight showdown between Pacio and Malachiev at ONE Fight Night 15 on Prime Video on October 6.

Jarred Brooks highlighted that ‘The Passion’ has more in his bag of tricks, including a shored-up striking game, than his Russian opponent, making him more potent, saying:

“Mansur isn’t too savvy on the feet from what I've been seeing. I mean he has a jab. He's your typical Russian fighter. While you have Pacio -- you don't see too many fighters like Pacio. He's got Sanda and Wushu mixed together and now he's working with the Winklejohn's and you know it's all crazy in the mix. So he's definitely a mixed martial artist, while Mansur is good at necessarily [just] one thing. I think that if it goes the distance, then Mansur could catch him. But you can never count Joshua Pacio out on a knockout.”

Check out the interview below:

The Pacio-Malachiev clash is part of the eight-bout ONE Fight Night 15, which is happening at the Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.

It will mark the first fight back of Joshua Pacio, 27, after losing the ONE strawweight world title to Brooks back in December.

Earlier this year, he left Team Lakay to help form Lions Nation MMA, along with the likes of Eduard Folayang, Honorio Banario and Kevin Belingon.

Apart from training with his new team for his upcoming fight, Joshua Pacio also made the rounds of gyms in the United States, including Jackson Wink MMA Academy in New Mexico, to help further develop his game.

Mansur Malachiev, for his part, had an impressive ONE debut in June, finishing Filipino Jeremy Miado by submission (D’Arce choke) in the opening round.

The 31-year-old Industrial Fighters affiliate banked on his expert wrestling game to hack out the impressive victory, which sent him to the No. 5 spot in the strawweight world rankings.

ONE Fight Night 15 will air live on US primetime free of charge for existing Prime Video subscribers in North America.