ONE strawweight champion Joshua Pacio is targeting bigger things as he is set to challenge ONE flyweight champion Yuya Wakamatsu at ONE 173 in Tokyo.
Joshua Pacio is entering uncharted territory, moving up one weight class to challenge current ONE Flyweight World Champion Yuya Wakamatsu at ONE 173 in Tokyo later this year.
The reigning three-time strawweight champion of the Singapore-based promotion, Pacio (23-4) now targets a bigger and better goal: becoming the Philippines’ first-ever two-division World Champion.
Despite not having faced Wakamatsu (19-6) before, Pacio has had teammates — current and former — who have entered the ONE Circle with the Japanese star, most recently Lions Nations MMA teammate Danny Kingad, whom Wakamatsu defeated in January 2024.
Pacio’s former stablemate Geje Eustaquio has also locked horns with Wakamatsu, notably during the former’s tenure as ONE Flyweight World Champion himself at the peak of success of Baguio-based stable Team Lakay.
However, it will be a big challenge for Pacio who has only fought in strawweight throughout his whole career in ONE Championship.
Pacio is coming off of a big win over rival Jarred Brooks in his last match, where he unified the strawweight belt with a second round TKO of the bruising American fighter in Qatar at ONE 171.
Overall, Pacio is riding a three-bout win streak heading into this new challenge.
Meanwhile, Wakamatsu, who will be the hometown bet at the Ariake Arena, has won four consecutive bouts.
Most recently, he scored a TKO victory over Adriano Moraes to win the then-vacant ONE Flyweight World Championship.
Pacio’s bid against Wakamatsu will go side-by-side with Denice Zamboanga’s title defense for the ONE Women’s Atomweight World Championship against Ayaka Miura — meaning the Philippines’ two active ONE World Champions will be seeing action on the same card.
The two title fights featuring Filipinos will be half of the four total announced title fights which will be disputed in Japan.