Reigning ONE strawweight world champion Joshua Pacio capped his trilogy bout against Yosuke Saruta of Japan with a first-round technical knockout at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Sept. 24.
The victory has assured that the Philippines remains to have a world mixed martial arts world champion courtesy of the 25-year-old Pacio of the famed Team Lakay.
The Pacio-Saruta world championship bout is one of the main cards of ONE:Revolution that also featured two other world championship matches.
The action started slowly but the first real action came when Pacio caught Saruta’s low kick and landed a grazing overhand right, which pushed the Japanese fighter off-balance.
The match continued with Saruta trying to break into Pacio’s defense with his boxing while Pacio softened his foe with kicks.
With less than two minutes remaining in the first, Pacio once again caught Saruta going low with his kicks, and he was right on target with his overhand right, which wobbled the Japanese challenger.
Saruta tried to escape, but there was no running from Pacio, who refused to let the former off the hook, connecting with a booming left hand that sent the 34-year-old to the circle wall.
From there, Pacio unleashed at least five more unanswered left hands as the referee stopped the contest at the 3:38 mark of the first round.
“We’ve been working on all of our strengths and weaknesses. We’re working on our counters as well. We’re working on our offense, and you can see it in that finish,” Pacio said in a post-fight interview.
The win pushed Pacio to 20 wins and three losses, defending the ONE strawweight world title for the third time.
He also upped his records for the most wins in ONE strawweight history with nine, most ONE strawweight world title fights with seven, and most ONE strawweight world title fight victories with five.
In the process, he defeated Saruta for the second straight time after losing by split decision in their first world title affair back in January 2019. – Harley F. Palangchao
