Joshua Pacio grateful for Jarred Brooks’ compassion after unfortunate head-spiking incident: “I saw the real him”

ONE strawweight MMA world champion Joshua Pacio suggested there’s actually no bad blood between himself and Jarred Brooks after seeing the real Brooks at ONE: Qatar.

Although Jarred Brooks gives himself airs on international television, deep down inside, he’s not the arrogant guy everyone knows him to be. Joshua Pacio for one, can attest to Brooks’ character following the unfortunate ending to their world title bout on March 1.

Speaking to The MMA Superfan, ‘The Passion’ said:

“I saw the real him. Even in [interviews], I don’t see Jarred Brooks as arrogant. I was blessed to see his true nature when we sat down and had breakfast. He no longer had to promote the fight so I saw the real Jarred Brooks. I’m grateful for him.”

See the full interview below:

Joshua Pacio reclaimed the ONE strawweight MMA world title in Qatar following Jarred Brooks’ illegal slam in the first round. The two superstars were excited to put their rivalry to rest, after having a close back-and-forth battle in their first match in December 2022.

Pacio, especially, deserved to have that rematch for being the first guy in ONE Championship to really give Brooks a run for his money.

And the sad part of this whole affair is that Pacio never got the chance to show what improvements he’s made since joining his new gym at Lion Nation MMA. But Pacio doesn’t feel discouraged. He got his belt back after all.

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Joshua Pacio thanks his Team at Lion Nation for their training and support post-belt victory

As aforementioned, Joshua Pacio trained the hardest he’s ever trained in preparation for Jarred Brooks.

After losing his belt to the American in their first world title showdown at ONE 164, ‘The Passion’ vowed to return better and stronger. Changing gym affiliations was the first step he took toward progress.

He left his longtime gym at Team Lakay, “Home of Champions,” to begin a new era with Lion Nation MMA. As Pacio once said in an interview, they challenged literally to the bone for his world title showdown with Brooks.

He thanked them on Instagram with the following caption:

“We got the Win in the way we didn’t wanted to, none of us wants that to happen. This is the best training camp I had so far in my entire career. I just want to take this opportunity to thank my team @lionsnationmma and to all the people who helped, supported and prayed for us before, during and after the training camp and this fight🙏🏼"