Joshua Pacio faces ONE conqueror with vengeance in his eyes

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino Joshua Pacio seeks nothing but revenge when he faces off conqueror Japanese Yosuke Saruta in their strawweight title re-match in ONE: Roots of Honor set April 12 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Pacio ceded his crown to Saruta by split decision, in ONE: Eternal Glory on Jan. 20 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

It was a close match the Team Lakay standout thought should have gone his way.While Pacio landed some effective strikes standing up, Saruta’s unorthodox takedown skills may have swayed the judges to score the triumph in the Japanese’ favor as the Filipino was pushed on his back for most of their five-round duel.

That sent Pacio to his third loss against 13 wins while Saruta improved to 19-8-3 (win-loss-draw).

Now Pacio wants to reclaim the crown that was originally his.

“We’ve prepared hard for this rematch and I’m confident of my chances,” said Pacio.

Interestingly, Pacio also seeks to regain one of the four ONE titles lost this year, three of them by countrymen Eduardo Folayang, Kevin Belingon and Geje Eustaquio.

Fil-Am Brandon Vera was the last Filipino ONE champion standing after those defeats.

Also seeing action are Eric Kelly against China’s Tang Kai and brother Edward versus South Korea’s Sung Jong Lee. Ramon Gonzales squares off with Japan’s Akihiro Fujisawa.

The main card features featherweight title showdown between reigning champion Vietnamese-Australian Martin Nguyen and Mongolian Narantungalag Jadambaa.