Strawweight Champ Joshua Pacio to Defend Belt Against Keito Yamakita at ONE SAMURAI 5

Pacio, the reigning ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion, will defend his gold against Japanese contender Keito "Pocket Monk" Yamakita on Wednesday, November 18, live from EBARA WAVE Arena Ota in Tokyo, Japan. Fans outside of Japan will be able to watch the show on live.onefc.com.

Pacio is the most dominant strawweight champion in MMA history, having won eight world title matches across three separate championship runs with the organization. He arrives in Tokyo on the back of a first-round submission victory over Mansur Malachiev in July, adding another devastating finish to a record that now stands at 24-5 with 19 wins via stoppage.

Yamakita, meanwhile, has built a five-fight winning streak in ONE Championship by defeating former world champions and contenders, making his case for a title shot impossible for the promotion to ignore.

Pacio Has Spent Years Defining ONE's Strawweight MMA Division

Pacio's relationship with the ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship is unlike any other in the promotion's history. The 30-year-old Filipino from Lions Nation MMA, who built his martial arts foundation on wushu, claimed the title for the first time at the age of 22 in a 2018 rematch against Yoshitaka Naito.

After losing the belt in his first defense against Yosuke Saruta, he reclaimed it months later via knockout, beginning a title reign that produced three successive defenses before Jarred "The Monkey God" Brooks ended it in 2022.

His third championship run began with a 2024 rematch victory over Brooks and reached its definitive peak at ONE 171 in Qatar in 2025, where he unified the ONE Strawweight MMA World Championship against Brooks in their trilogy, finally putting the rivalry to rest on the grandest stage available.

Yamakita Has Built an Unbeatable Case for a Title Shot at ONE SAMURAI 5

Yamakita's path to this world title fight at ONE SAMURAI 5 is one of the most methodical contender builds the ONE Championship strawweight division has ever seen. The 30-year-old Japanese wrestler made his professional MMA debut at 23 and compiled a 7-0 record before arriving in ONE Championship in 2023.

Since then, he has been a problem for everyone ONE Championship has placed in front of him. His 6-1 promotional mark and five-fight winning streak include victories over former ONE Strawweight MMA World Champions Alex "Little Rock" Silva and Yosuke "The Ninja" Saruta, two of the most celebrated names the division has produced. Beating two former champs puts him in a top tier of contenders and makes the title shot entirely earned rather than circumstantial.

His wrestling background and submission hunting game give him a grappling-heavy approach that has consistently delivered finishes against fighters who expected to keep the contest standing. Six finishes from 13 career victories and the quality of the names on his recent record make him the most credible challenger Pacio has faced since the Brooks trilogy concluded.

A True Styles Clash of the Highest Caliber

The stylistic matchup between Pacio and Yamakita at ONE SAMURAI 5 is one of the more intriguing the strawweight division has produced in recent memory.

Pacio's wushu foundation gives him fluid striking and the kind of creative movement that has caused problems for grapplers throughout his career, while Yamakita's wrestling base and submission instincts represent exactly the kind of game plan that has ended title reigns at this weight class before.

The Filipino's first-round submission of Malachiev in July demonstrated that his grappling has grown alongside his striking, making him a more complete champion than the one who defended the title in his early twenties.

Whether Yamakita's wrestling can overcome a champion who has now navigated every kind of challenge the strawweight division has produced across three separate title reigns is the central question of the November 18 main event.