To continue this series of fight wishes of Team Lakay head coach and spiritual leader Mark Sangiao for his wards, the team’s wards, Sangiao revealed his fight wishes for Team Lakay’s youngest and only current title holder, Joshua Pacio.
There are two men who Sangiao believes Pacio should have rematch with: former strawweight titleholders Yosuke Saruta and Yoshitaka Naito.
“Like Eduard [Folayang], Joshua is in one of the deepest divisions in ONE Championship. [The] Strawweight [division] is stacked with world-class fighters from top to bottom. The competition is very close. But Joshua is so good, that he can really hang with the best of them. He’s at the top now, and this young man is working very hard to keep his spot,” Sangiao explains.
“I think he needs to complete trilogies with Yosuke Saruta and Yoshitaka Naito. A lot of people weren’t convinced with his victories over either, which is why I think rematches would work well in favor of Joshua closing the book on these adversaries.
Joshua continues to get better and better by the day. I’m really amazed at his development, and he’s still so young.”, Sangiao ended
Rundown on coach’s fight wish list
I have to kind of disagree with Sangiao on this one, but only in as far as the preferred fight is concerned.
As a sports fan, the fights that carry the most appeal are the ones between two rising forces.
Reigning ONE Strawweight World Champion Joshua Pacio’s case is not different. Being champion means everyone should be coming for you.
The official ONE rankings for the Strawweight MMA division revealed the following: World Champion: Pacio; Contenders: 1. Saruta, 2. Naito, 3. Rene Catalan, 4. Alex Silva, 5. Lito Adiwang.
Pacio has already dealt each and everyone in this list a loss except one, teammate Adiwang, whose rise to stardom is nothing but meteoric.
That’s right, if fight fans are to be followed: “The Passion” versus “Thunder Kid” for the ONE World Strawweight title is the bout to see.
Surely, pure MMA fans in the Cordilleras would also love to see this fight unfold if they are to completely ignore the Cordilleran connection between these two fighters, as well as the well-knit brotherhood they have established as part of the Team Lakay stable.
It would not be difficult to understand why these two will not probably face each other in the ring, even with the title at stake.
These two are sparmates in the gym and it will be distasteful for one to go after the scalp of someone who actually helped him improve his game.
It is well-premised that if Adiwang keeps winning, he will eventually find himself on track for a shot at the world title
Adiwang, however, displayed time and time again the well-knit brotherhood between Team Lakay members.
While “Thunder Kid” isn’t really ruling out a showdown with “The Passion”, he prefers to avoid it if necessary, He would still prefer to take out other top contenders in the division to boost his stock.
If he does that and Pacio is yet to be dethroned, he would rather set himself to a path many MMA artists in the flyweight division would only dream of, that of eventually facing Demetrius Johnson, rather than facing his “brother”.
Pacio isn’t sounding off on this topic but it is with high certainty that he probably also wishes to avoid defending his title against Adiwang.
The good thing going for him is Sangiao’s other point and Adiwang’s relatively being a newcomer in ONE.
The strawweight division is one of ONE Championship’s richest weight classes in terms of talent. While Pacio has established himself as a legitimate and dominant champion, the fighters in his division still pack tons of wallops.
Further, Adiwang, while already registering five explosive wins in a ONE ring, has a lot to prove before taking a shot at the world title. It is safe to assume that he would not be getting a title shot anytime soon even if somebody else other than Pacio is defending the crown.
So if the next best fight for the ONE strawweight title is to be considered, Pacio completing a triology with either Naito and Saruta should be it.
Sangiao’s right, a closure in this twin Filipino-Japanese rivalries needs to happen.
In the Pacio-Naito rivalry, Naito won the first fight by rear-naked submission on October 2016 then Pacio exacted revenge with a unanimous decision victory on September, 2018.
In the Pacio-Saruta rivalry, Saruta took the belt by a controversial split decision victory on January 2019 after which Pacio countered with a knockout victory On April of same year win to reclaim the belt.
Winning triologies is a sign of prevailing over a worthy opponent. Having the opportunity to be in and winning a triology with these very worthy Japanese fighters would only improve Pacio’s stature.
Saruta and Naito are actually scheduled to face each other this September in Tokyo’s “Road to ONE: 3rd TOKYO FIGHT NIGHT” event organized by Abema TV in partnership with ONE.
Saruta has expressed his intention of facing Pacio if he can get past Naito. Naito should be thinking the same.
Pacio should be thinking of both and his strategies to win triologies against them and retain his title.
These bouts will likely happen when the pandemic ceases and fights can again be organized.
By: Armando M. Bolislis