ONE Championship: Joshua Pacio, Jarred Brooks get physical, trade insults at face-offs in Manila
- Security forced to step in as brash American trades insults with Filipino strawweight champion ahead of heated ONE 164 main event
- ‘Disrespectful’ Brooks angers Pacio by grabbing his traditional Igorot clothing during Friday’s ceremonial weigh-ins, and says ‘you’re dead’
Friday night’s ONE Championship 164 ceremonial weigh-ins and face-offs at the Mall of Asia Arena turned physical, with strawweight king Joshua Pacio and Jarred Brooks having to be separated by security.
Brooks got straight in Pacio’s face when the Filipino approached the stage in Manila, and the two butted heads like a pair of rams as ONE senior director of competition Ric Auty was forced to quickly step between them.
Auty had earlier also had to break up a scuffle between heavyweights Brandon Vera and Amir Aliakbari – a far more troublesome task, for sure – as things heated up ahead of Saturday night’s card, part of a double header of events as the martial arts promotion returns to the Philippines for the first time in nearly three years.
But it was the main event duo who really got things going – there was even some coarse language that had to be edited out of the official broadcast.
“No, you ain’t coming close to me, right,” Brooks said, after they had first been pulled apart.
“I just did, man,” Pacio replied, clearly eager not to let “The Monkey God” feel like he had got in his head – as he has tried to do all week here on the champion’s home turf.