Jarred Brooks to leave it all in the ring against Gustavo Balart: “I'm going to showcase it all”

Former ONE strawweight MMA world champion Jarred Brooks vows to showcase everything in his arsenal against Gustavo Balart in their scheduled title clash later this week in Bangkok, Thailand.

'The Monkey God' will battle 'El Gladiador' for the interim strawweight world title at ONE Fight Night 24 on Prime Video on Aug. 2. It is the headlining contest of the event happening at the Lumpinee Stadium and airing live and for free in U.S. primetime to North American fans with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.

In a conversation with ONE Championship ahead of his showdown against Balart, 31-year-old Brooks made it known that he is all too familiar with the game of his Cuban opponent and is going to take it head-on in whatever direction their match will go.

Jarred Brooks said:

"I'm going to showcase it all. He's been working on a lot of boxing in this camp and he's probably done a little bit of Muay Thai and I know all the boys that he works with. I've been to little Cuba where Alex Caceres and all those boys trained. I'm familiar with their training camps, so I'm not opposed to working on what he's working to defeat him."

Jarred Brooks is out to claim the interim strawweight belt to put himself in a position to challenge reigning divisional king Joshua Pacio in a unification bout. He lost the strawweight gold to 'The Passion' in their title rematch in March in Qatar by disqualification. That was after he executed an illegal slam that had his opponent hitting the canvas head first.

ONE Championship is having an interim strawweight championship fight as Pacio is out indefinitely to recover from the ACL injury he suffered even before he took on Brooks.

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Jarred Brooks eyes bigger conquests moving forward

Jarred Brooks has had a lot of success competing in the strawweight lane in ONE Championship but he said he is still eyeing bigger conquests as he moves along with his journey in the promotion.

The former ONE strawweight MMA world champion said he is gunning more than claiming the interim championship belt in the division in his next match at ONE Fight Night 24 on Prime Video on Aug. 2 against Gustavo Balart, and later on become the undisputed world champion again.

Jarred Brooks shared this in an interview with ONE Championship, underscoring that even with the defeat he absorbed to Joshua Pacio last time around, where he also lost the strawweight gold, his grand goals for his career are still the same.

He said:

"And you know, Pacio has his motivations, I have my motivations, but I do think that they're bigger. And I think that my aspirations are bigger than any fighter in ONE Championship, and I think that a lot of people just don't see that and it will come out. The truth always comes out, bro. My aspirations are way, way higher than any strawweight, flyweight, you know?"

Jarred Brooks made his ONE Championship debut in November 2021 and has won four of his first six matches.