Fighter Profile: Joshua Pacio

Background

Filipino strawweight from Baguio City, nicknamed “The Passion”, and the reigning ONE strawweight MMA world champion. His professional record is 24-5 with 10 knockout wins.

Career timeline

• Came up through Team Lakay and won the ONE strawweight world championship, holding it across multiple reigns.
• Beat Mansur Malachiev by hard-fought unanimous decision at ONE Fight Night 15 in October 2023 — handing the Russian the first loss of his career.
• Defended the title in a rematch with Malachiev at ONE: The Inner Circle 21 on 10 July 2026, submitting him by rear-naked choke at 4:23 of round one at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.
• The performance earned a US$50,000 bonus from ONE chairman Chatri Sityodtong.

Fight craft

Pacio began as a striker in the Team Lakay wushu tradition and has become something closer to a complete mixed martial artist — the Malachiev rematch was won with grappling against one of the better grapplers in his division, which is a genuine evolution rather than a stylistic accident. He is fast, accurate and comfortable in scrambles. His size for the weight class has been the recurring pressure point, and the losses on his record have generally come against physically stronger opponents.

In the modern MMA landscape

Our wider MMA analysis records this result correctly. The detail worth adding is that it was a rematch of a fight Pacio had already won narrowly on the cards in 2023, and this time he finished it inside a round — which is a clearer statement about the direction of his career than the bare result.

Return to What the Modern MMA Game Demands.

Sources

• ONE Championship — Pacio sleeps Malachiev to retain the ONE strawweight MMA world title
• GMA News — Pacio submits Malachiev, retains strawweight gold
• Philstar — Pacio stops Malachiev to retain ONE strawweight belt

Record and competitive status checked 1 August 2026.