Joshua Pacio reclaims ONE Strawweight title from ‘Monkey God’ after illegal slam

Joshua Pacio has reclaimed the ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship, albeit with incident, in his rematch against Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks at ONE 166: Qatar on Friday, March 1, at Lusail Sports Arena.

The Lions Nation MMA representative got illegally slammed on his head by the World Champion which led to referee Herb Dean disqualifying Brooks after the match.

Brooks initially thought that he had the match won after Dean waved the fight off after the takedown which the brash American followed up with head strikes 56 seconds into the rematch.

But the official was quick to note the infraction, with Brooks guilty of spiking Pacio’s head to the mat – a clear violation of the global MMA rules.

Pacio was awarded with the victory, but medics were quick to take him to a local medical facility with updates coming from Qatar stating that the proud Filipino striker is conscious.

Meanwhile, Jeremy “The Jaguar” Miado also suffered a debilitating first round submission defeat to Keito “Pocket Monk” Yamakita earlier in the night.

The T-Rex MMA standout found himself in trouble and had no choice but to submit to the bulldog choke at the 4:04 mark of round one.

It was a tough defeat for Miado who bowed to his third straight defeat after stringing four consecutive victories.