JOSHUA Pacio once again impressed in front of his home crowd as he hardly broke a sweat in dispatching Thai foe Pongsiri Mitsatit in the preliminary card of ONE: Reign of Kings on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Pacio finished Mitsatit in the three-minute, 37-second mark of the first round with what looked like a modified arm lock, which stretched his opponent's arms backwards while locking his legs in his torso.
This came after a brutal ground and pound, which eventually forced Misatit to give up his back. Pacio improved to 12-2.
"I feel awesone. I can't express the feeling of fighting in front of the home crowd," said Pacio who hasn't experienced defeat in the Philippines.
"I call that the 'Passion Lock.' I've tried that move in training and I thought I'd do it here," he added.
Pacio wasn't the only successful Filipino in the prelims.
Rene Catalan padded his winning streak to five as he dominated Indonesian foe Steffer Rahardian en route to a unanimous decision victory.
Catalan was easily the better fighter on the feet as he clobbered the erstwhile unbeaten Rahardian with clean head strikes and heavy leg kicks.
Twice, Catalan rocked Rahardian but the Indonesian grappler proved to be a tough nut to crack.
That toughness could only bring him so far as Catalan rolled to an easy decision victory.
Catalan improved to 5-2 as Rahardian dropped to 9-1.
In other bouts, Xie Bie of China wasted little time in dispatching Sor Sey, winning via guillotine choke in the first round while Changmuaktong Fightermuaythai dominated Brown Pinas in the first ONE Super Series fight of the evening.
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