Although Joshua Pacio relinquished his possession of the sought-after strawweight belt a few months ago, he is still regarded by many as the most dominant mixed martial artist in the division’s history under the ONE Championship banner.
With two reigns as champion in the weight class and a record number of eight world title fights to go along with three successful defenses, it is fair to say that he has left his fingerprints all over the 125-pound bracket.
However, the 27-year-old Baguio City native concedes that his days at strawweight are numbered, and he will eventually move up to flyweight.
“I have three to four years left fighting in the strawweight division. My body is continuously growing, so I think maybe after three to four years, I’ll be a flyweight as well,” Pacio told Tiebreaker Times.
But before formally bidding farewell to the division that has catapulted him to superstardom, Pacio intends to make the most of his remaining years.
A large part of it is reclaiming the ONE strawweight championship he lost to Jarred Brooks this past December.
“The Passion” made a conscious effort to get all the help he needed by traveling to the United States earlier this month.
Pacio and stablemate Eduard Folayang are in the final week of their training at the famed Jackson Wink MMA Academy in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
As they plan to extend their stay in the U.S. for another three weeks to set up camp in the sunny state of California, both men are expected to be in attendance for ONE Championship’s first live event on American shores—numbered ONE Fight Night 10—this May 6 (Philippine time).
Pacio will be closely watching the rubber match for the coveted ONE flyweight title, pitting Demetrious Johnson against Adriano Moraes in the card’s headliner.
“What I’m really looking forward to is the main event between Demetrious Johnson and Adriano Moraes. There have been articles circulating around the internet that, I don’t know if it’s true, it will be Demetrious Johnson’s last fight, but I really hope it isn’t just yet,” he said.
“That’s the fight I really want to watch. I want to see who comes out on top of their trilogy bout.”
When asked who he would be rooting for in the main event, Pacio picked “Mighty Mouse” to break the series deadlock with Moraes.
“It’s really hard to predict the winner, but if I had to, we already saw Demetrious Johnson have trouble with Adriano Moraes’ height. At the same time, we saw in the second fight that Demetrious Johnson’s strategy was absolutely perfect,” he shared.
“I’m going to go with Demetrious Johnson in this fight.”
