Philippines' Pacio Promises to Raise the Roof at ONE Championship Qatar

Getting popular by the day, much like the former boxing star Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) ONE strawweight world champion Joshua Pacio is looking to please many of his fans the world over but in a different arena, and this time in Qatar.

FACEOFF: Joshua Pacio (right) and Jarred Brooks ahead of their highly anticipated ONE Championship Mixed Martial Arts World Title unification bout in Qatar.

Pacio will be up against interim title holder American Jarred Brooks at the Lusail Sports Arena on Thursday (Feb 20) night at the ONE Championship, organised by the world’s largest martial arts organisation ONE, in partnership with Visit Qatar.

Pacio, also famous as “The Passion”, packed a punch while speaking at the ONE 171: Qatar pre-event media interaction. The Filipino will be facing Brooks “The Monkey God” for a third time in a highly anticipated World Title unification bout.

Pacio amidst big applause of fans from the expat community in Qatar.

The difference this time is, of course, I'm going to win. Yeah, I'm going to win.

Pacio added

The last time also I won, but it wasn’t the way I wanted to. And I don't look [at the] past, I look forward, and here we are. It will be different. It will be different this time.

Fight schedule

Brooks stepped up thing on his part, saying

I want to be remembered as the true strawweight World Champion. I am grateful to ONE Championship, and for the things that they’ve done for me. I promise you, Joshua, and I, we are more than willing and prepared, and I am going to go out and I'm going to finish him on Thursday, whether you like it, or you don't. I'm going to go out and I'm going to finish him.

In the co-main event, ONE Bantamweight Kickboxing World Champion Jonathan Haggerty from Britain will be defending his belt against Chinese icon Wei Rui.

Haggerty, “The General”, said

I'm truly blessed to be doing what I love and traveling to beautiful countries like Qatar. I'm very excited to defend my belt against Wei Rui. You know, he's a very credible opponent, the number one for a reason. We've left no stone unturned. turned. We've not overlooked him, and we're just excited to put on a great performance for everyone.

Rui, a kickboxing megastar who is riding an astonishing 21-fight winning streak, promised to take the belt home to China.

Rui said

This is the first time I come to Doha, and I came here just for this world title belt. I will definitely bring this belt to China. Thank you.