Joshua Pacio says loss was a "bitter pill for me to take"

Former divisional world champion Joshua Pacio said he’s moving on after losing his strawweight belt to Jarred Brooks at ONE 164 last week.

After being away from competition since September 2021, it didn’t seem Pacio was affected at all by the long hiatus. Although he came up short against Jarred Brooks, ‘The Passion’ truly held his ground and made this fight into a war.

Still feeling disappointed with his performance, Joshua Pacio has nevertheless taken the loss like a world-class champion. He told ONE Championship:

“At the end of the day, all is well, and I would like to thank our almighty God because I didn’t get any serious injuries. The loss might be a bitter pill for me to take, but I am sure I will learn many things from it.”

Joshua Pacio was handed his first loss in three years by ‘The Monkey God’ Jarred Brooks. The Filipino sensation was Brooks’ toughest opponent yet, as he wasn’t taken down to the mat so easily.

Brooks has a reputation for utilizing his wrestling to wear down his opponents and look for the submission. Pacio, on the other hand, had excellent takedown defense and really made Brooks work for his victory.

After a very closely-contested matchup, Pacio regrettably suffered a decision loss and surrendered his strawweight belt in the process. Motivated to continue hustling despite the loss, Pacio is looking forward to a potential rematch with the newly-crowned world champion.

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CEO Chatri Sityodtong believes Joshua Pacio could’ve won if he stepped on the gas at the end

ONE CEO and founder Chatri Sityodtong believes that if Joshua Pacio had gone all out in the final round, he could’ve ultimately retained his belt.

As mentioned above, the main event was an epic and close fight between two warriors. Jarred Brooks had trouble finding takedowns in the earlier rounds, which is a testament to Joshua Pacio’s training at Team Lakay.

However, as the match progressed, Pacio started to slow down. The punches and leg kicks to the body lost their sting in the championship rounds. Brooks, on the other hand, capitalized and pushed the pace a little bit better.

In the fourth round, he caught Pacio’s leg kick and drove forward to take Pacio’s back. The final minutes of the fourth round saw Pacio in trouble which made the scorecards for sure on Brooks’ part.

Ultimately, Chatri Sityodtong thought the same thing. If Pacio had gone for broke in the final round, he might’ve still been the strawweight world champion.

At the ONE 164 post-event presser, Sityodtong said:

“Ultra-close fight, I’m sure they’re going to rematch in the future, Joshua was one good punch, one good kick away from winning the fight. If he had rocked that last round, if he had went for it right.”

Watch the full interview below: