The ONE Strawweight World Championship clash between Joshua Pacio and Yosuke Saruta was undoubtedly a close one.
But for ONE Chief Executive Officer Chatri Siyodtong, the defending champion Pacio was the clear victor.
“My personal opinion, as a life-long martial artist, I think Joshua Pacio won the fight,” Sityodtong opined during the press conference for ONE: Hero’s Ascent.
“I was very disappointed.”
Last Saturday, Pacio defended the championship he won last September for the first time in the main event of ONE: Eternal Glory.
Though Saruta, a late replacement, was able to take down the Filipino, he failed to even land a shot or move to an advantageous position all throughout the bout. On the other hand, Pacio greatly outclassed the Japanese athlete in terms of striking, as he threw and connected on a wide array of combinations.
Unlike their western counterparts, ONE uses the global mixed martial arts rule set. Compared to the unified rule set which judges fight through rounds, ONE’s judging system has a criteria that emphasizes near KO and submission; damage; striking combinations and cage generalship; earned take down for and against; and aggression – in that order.
Using this system, Sityodtong believes Pacio passed all the checkmarks – contrary to what two of the judges saw.
“In our rule set, there’s a very big difference between our rule set and the unified rule set. The unified rule set is, it’s a game. The last thirty seconds, I take you down, I win the round. If I do it enough times, I win the fight. But that’s not real martial arts, that’s just a game. Lay-and-pray is just a game,” lamented Sityodtong, himself a Kru in Muay Thai and a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.
“In my opinion, Joshua Pacio won because he won the exchanges, he landed the harder shots. Yes, he was taken down, but Saruta did nothing.”
To be clear, Sityodtong is not throwing his judges under the bus.
“I will tell you this, the officials over at ONE Championship are the very best in the world. Seven years, thousands of fights, they hardly, hardly ever make an error, so I can’t say that they made an error or not,” he furthered.
“But it was a close fight.”
Still, Sityodtong is granting Team Lakay’s young gun his wish – an immediate rematch.
“Just for me, from my perspective, I thought Joshua won, so yes there will be a rematch.”
