"What a fight!" - Former kickboxing champ Jonathan Di Bella applauds Joshua Pacio, consoles Jarred Brooks after ONE 171 banger

Former ONE strawweight kickboxing world champion Jonathan Di Bella was among the many fans to watch the unification bout between ONE strawweight MMA world champion Joshua Pacio and ONE interim strawweight MMA king Jarred Brooks go down in the main event of ONE 171: Qatar on Thursday, Feb. 20.

In one of the most anticipated trilogy fights in ONE history, 'The Passion' survived a trademark Brooks onslaught in the opening round, which featured multiple submission attempts from 'The Monkey God'.

To many fans' surprise, the Filipino MMA superstar dominated the ground game and ascended to undisputed status with a second-round TKO of Brooks.

Check out Joshua Pacio getting his hand raised below, which ONE shared on Instagram:

In the comments section, Di Bella tipped his hat to Pacio for a job well done while also giving the devastated Brooks some words of support. He wrote:

"What a Fight!!!! Congrats @joshuapacio 🙏🏻 @the_monkeygod keep your head up ! It was a great fight."

Screenshot of Jonathan Di Bella's comment. [ONE Championship/Instagram]

With Pacio becoming the undisputed ONE strawweight MMA world champion once more, this win marks the start of his third reign with the gold.

The full replay of ONE 171 is available to fans who purchased the pay-per-view at watch.onefc.com.

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Jonathan Di Bella weeks away from opportunity at interim gold

Jonathan Di Bella will have a chance to rejoin Joshua Pacio and their peers in the pantheon of ONE world champions when he competes for the ONE interim strawweight kickboxing world championship at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan on March 23 at ONE 172: Takeru vs. Rodtang.

However, it will be no walk in the park for the 28-year-old Italian-Canadian since his opponent will be Thai legend and former ONE strawweight kickboxing world champion Sam-A Gaiyanghadao.

Tickets for ONE 172 are available via EPlus.