"Lionheart" - Fans in pure awe of strawweight killers Joshua Pacio and Mansur Malachiev's clash of fighting styles

ONE strawweight MMA world champion Joshua Pacio's 17-fight resume in ONE Championship is teeming with excellent performances. In October 2023, the Filipino spitfire delivered what some view as his greatest outing versus Mansur Malachiev.

The Russian standout entered their matchup fresh off a first-round submission of Pacio's fellow countryman Jeremy Miado in June of that year.

However, 'The Passion' was unfazed and gave Malachiev everything he could handle for all three rounds, with the currently second-ranked 125-pound MMA competitor responding in kind. After three hard-fought rounds, Pacio was awarded the unanimous decision win.

Relive Joshua Pacio's outstanding victory below:

Fans applauded both strawweights in the comments section, writing:

"Real warrior 👏🔥"

"Lionheart."

"Wow what a fight from both of them 👏"

"Man that'd be tough to be his opponent. Like bro I don't want to end your career, just take this L 🙏🏻"

"They both got hands tho 👏"

Screenshot of fans' comments. [ONE Championship/Instagram]

This was Pacio's much-anticipated return to the circle after dropping the strawweight MMA crown to Jarred Brooks in December 2022 via unanimous decision.

After a harrowing end to their world title rematch at ONE 166 last March, the reigning Pacio and recently crowned interim strawweight MMA king Brooks will have a unification bout at ONE 171: Qatar on Feb. 20, inside the Lusail Sports Arena in Lusail, Qatar.

Tickets for ONE 171 are available via Q-Tickets.

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Joshua Pacio sheds light gameplan for Jarred Brooks trilogy

Joshua Pacio and his team, Lions Nation MMA, paid close attention to Jarred Brooks' flyweight MMA debut against Reece McLaren last December. The 29-year-old shared their observations in an interview with The MMA Superfan, saying:

"And from what we gathered, I think he does some things over and over again, and it becomes muscle memory for him. So it's one of the things we're doing a game plan for."

Watch the entire interview below.