“He reminds me of Marcelo Garcia” – Jarred Brooks compares Mikey Musumeci to one of the greatest BJJ icons of all time

Reigning and undisputed ONE strawweight MMA world champion ‘The Monkey God’ Jarred Brooks is a huge fan of Italian-American BJJ icon ‘Darth Rigatoni’ Mikey Musumeci, despite losing to the ONE flyweight submission grappling king in the Circle last year.

Brooks suffered defeat at the hands of Musumeci at ONE Fight Night 13: Allazov vs. Grigorian on Prime Video last August 2023, after tapping out to a rear-naked choke from ‘Darth Rigatoni’. That fight, and the entire card can be viewed by fans in the United States and Canada via replay on-demand on Amazon Prime Video.

‘The Monkey God’ came into that match absolutely confident of victory, despite Musumeci’s reputation as a remorseless finisher. But in spite of his loss, Brooks has developed incredible respect for the 27-year-old Italian-American star.

Speaking to Nic Atkin in a recent interview, Brooks likened Musumeci to one of his heroes growing up. ‘The Monkey God’ said:

“If I was to put Mikey in a category it would be Marcelo Garcia. He reminds me of a lot of Marcelo Garcia. I looked up to Marcelo my whole career so I look up to Mikey as well.”

Marcelo ‘Marcelinho’ Garcia is one of the most accomplished competitors in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He is a former IBJJF and ADCC world champion, with more than half of his 85 career wins ending by submission.

Needless to say, being compared to Garcia is a huge honor for Musumeci in and of itself.

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Jarred Brooks heads to Qatar to run it back with former foe Joshua Pacio this March

ONE Championship is heading back to the Middle East for the first time in nearly a decade, when it holds ONE 166: Qatar on Friday, March 1.

In the co-main event, ONE strawweight MMA world champion ‘The Monkey God’ Jarred Brooks of the United States will face former strawweight king Joshua ‘The Passion’ Pacio of the Philippines in a highly anticipated rematch for the gold.

Brooks took the belt from Pacio in Dec. 2022.