Joshua Pacio willing to put college on hold for another title shot

Young phenom Joshua Pacio of Baguio City's Team Lakay looked promising as ever after he displayed his well-roundedness as a mixed martial arts fighter in his impressive submission win against Lan Ming Qiang in the co-main event of "ONE: Global Superheroes" this past Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The young Joshua Pacio shortly after winning against China's Lan Ming Qiang. Photo: KC Cruz

The 22-year-old Pacio, who once fought for the ONE strawweight world title in 2016, said he wanted to take his time and rack up more experience under his belt. Given an opportunity, he wanted to test himself against two previous foes who both defeated him by a rear naked choke submission.

"I'm not thinking of another title shot nor a fight with the current champion. I just want to fight to gain more experience," Pacio quipped. "I want to fight more elite competitors like Hayato Suzuki and Yoshitaka Naito. I need to prove myself and fight both in a rematch to gauge if I was able to improve myself."

With 13 professional mixed martial arts fights to boot, Pacio has to balance time for MMA and college as he is currently taking a Hotel and Restaurant Management course at the University of the Cordilleras.

And while he's in no rush to fight for a world title again, he's willing to perform a sacrifice he's never done before and step up to the plate if called to face the current ONE strawweight champion Alex Silva.

"If ONE wants to give me a title shot- I am very willing to take it because that's where I am headed anyway," told Pacio.

"If I'm to fight for the title I'll have to train really hard to the point that perhaps I'll stop college for one semester to focus on training alone. When it comes to striking I can go toe to toe, but I'm sure if he (Alex Silva) is to fight me the contest will go to the ground so I'll have to improve my ground game." —ALG, GMA News