Jarred Brooks drops two big names he could face next if Joshua Pacio isn’t ready: “I show people that I'm willing to take all”

Newly minted interim ONE strawweight MMA world champion Jarred Brooks is willing to take on anybody if his unification match with Joshua Pacio gets delayed further as the reigning divisional king recovers from an ACL injury. In fact, he already has two opponents in mind.

'The Monkey God' shared this following his victory at ONE Fight Night 24 on Prime Video on Aug. 2 in Thailand, where he became the interim champion with a first-round submission victory over Cuban Gustavo Balart.

He said among those he is looking at facing if Pacio is not yet available soon are Keito 'Pocket Monk' Yamakita of Japan and Sanzhar 'Tornado' Zakirov, saying:

"So I show people that I'm willing to take all and I'm not worried about anybody else in the division. So if they want to give me Keito Yamakita for another interim belt, or if they want to give me Sanzhar. With Sanzhar, he's only really had one fight outside of the top 10.

"So I think Yamakita would be a good fight for me. But Sanzhar, hey, I'm not worried about you either. You can beat all these guys that are just coming up, but when you hit that top five, we'll see just how good you are."

Yamakita, 28, has won back-to-back matches, the most recent a split decision victory over Yosuke Saruta of Japan also at ONE Fight Night 24. Zakirov, 21, meanwhile, has been undefeated in three fights to date since making his ONE debut in August last year.

---

Jarred Brooks happy to have earned his jiu-jitsu black belt as well

Apart from claiming the interim strawweight MMA belt at ONE Fight Night 24 on Prime Video on Aug. 2, Jarred Brooks also received his jiu-jitsu black belt on the same night to make the proceedings all the more significant.

The American fighter's jiu-jitsu coach at Roots Combat Club Alex Hodi surprised him with his black belt just as he received the interim ONE strawweight belt.

Following his victory, Jarred Brooks shared his thoughts on earning his black belt, especially how it was a culmination of all the work he put in to improve his grappling game.

He said:

"Man, that means a lot from my jiu-jitsu coach, Alex Hodi. We've worked day in, and day out on our jiu-jitsu game. And my coach, James Lee, and Brian Harper. I've had great staff here this whole camp.

"So to get a black belt tonight means the most, especially coming from Alex. He's a very humble man, but I do think that he's probably one of the best grapplers in the world right now. So, yeah, it just meant the world to me."

Back in August last year, Jarred Brooks put his grappling skills to a test when he challenged ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci. But while he made early inroads, he was eventually submitted by 'Darth Rigatoni' midway into their 10-minute clash.