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Jarred Brooks could get a step closer to the throne he once held.
The once strawweight MMA king will square up against Gustavo Balart for the right to hold the ONE interim strawweight MMA world title in the main event of ONE Fight Night 24: Brooks vs. Balart on Prime Video.
The high-profile world title tiff goes down on August 2, US primetime, at the historic Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok.
With ONE strawweight MMA world champion Joshua Pacio sidelined due to an ACL injury, ONE Championship deemed it fit to pit Brooks and Balart for the interim strap.
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ONE Championship announced the match on its official website and social media accounts.
The promotion posted on Instagram:
"BREAKING 🚨 With Joshua Pacio out of action due to injury, former champ Jarred Brooks will face third-ranked Gustavo Balart in the main event of ONE Fight Night 24 on @primevideo for the ONE Interim Strawweight MMA World Title 👑 Who you got? @the_monkeygod @gladiator_balart_"
Brooks captured the ONE strawweight MMA world title when he scored a unanimous decision win over Pacio in front of a hostile Manila crowd at ONE 164 in December 2022.
His rematch against Pacio, however, ended in disaster when he relinquished the strawweight MMA strap due to disqualification.
Brooks inadvertently spiked Pacio's head straight to the canvas, an illegal move in the Global MMA ruleset, in the opening moments of their highly anticipated world title rematch at ONE 166 in Qatar.
Balart, meanwhile, is in the best form of his MMA career.
The Cuban Olympic wrestler is on a string of four straight wins in ONE Championship, with victories over Hiroba Minowa, Ryuto Sawada, and former ONE strawweight MMA world champions Yosuke Saruta and Alex Silva.
ONE Fight Night 24 is available live and free to all Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada.
Jarred Brooks wishes his rival Jarred Brooks the best after ACL injury
Jarred Brooks and Joshua Pacio share one of the fiercest rivalries in ONE Championship, but both fighters only maintained that animosity inside the cage.
Pacio and Brooks have a great deal of respect for each other, and 'The Monkey God' even wished his eternal rival a healthy recovery after he found out about the Filipino superstar's knee injury.
Brooks told Sportskeeda MMA:
"I know Joshua is going to be out with the ACL injury. This just puts a stamp on me beating everybody in the division, including Joshua. I wish nothing but the best for Joshua, I’m sorry that happened at the end of the day."
