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Divisional king Joshua Pacio does not want to hunt for a finish against Jarred Brooks. In his opinion, that plan could backfire in their trilogy at ONE 171: Qatar.
The reigning ONE strawweight MMA world champion meets the interim champ to unify their 26 pounds of gold in the main event of the spectacle, which emanates live from the Lusail Sports Arena on Thursday, Feb. 20.
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Speaking to Bangkok Post, 'The Passion' said his preferred modus operandi on fight night is to take things one step at a time to slowly assess any openings against the Mash Fight Team representative.
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Joshua Pacio said:
"If I have the opportunity, I will finish him. But I'm not looking for a knockout because, sometimes, when you're looking for a knockout, you'll be the one who will be knocked out."
Pacio, 29, heads into this world title unification battle off a torrid end to 2024. While there was a silver lining as he took a DQ win over Jarred Brooks at ONE 166: Qatar, all wasn't smooth sailing outside of martial arts' biggest stage.
Just weeks after his rematch against 'The Monkey God', Pacio tore the anterior cruciate ligament in one of his knees during training, which forced any talks of an immediate trilogy against Brooks on the shelf.
However, he clarified that all is well ahead of their rubber match this week. In the same exchange, the Lions Nation MMA martial artist added:
"I'm feeling great. I'm feeling excited. After a year, I think, almost a year, we're back here. And yeah, just feeling excited."
Catch the full interview here:
Jarred Brooks guarantees a "pretty" conclusion to Joshua Pacio trilogy in Qatar
During the official pre-fight press conference of ONE 171: Qatar, Jarred Brooks took his chance to remind Joshua Pacio that there's only going to be one winner come fight night.
"I promise you, the third time's the charm. That's what's gonna happen. The third time is a charm, and it's gonna be pretty, I tell you what."
Before Pacio and Brooks' rubber match, ONE bantamweight kickboxing world champion Jonathan Haggerty will defend his gold against top-ranked Chinese kickboxer 'Demon Blade' Wei Rui.
ONE 171: Qatar will be available at watch.onefc.com this Thursday, Feb. 20.
