Jarred Brooks on being a mixed martial artist and ‘a poet’: "It's just been tuned with my soul really well"

When Jarred Brooks isn’t busy kicking a** and taking names inside the circle, ‘The Monkey God’ is an avid poet and hip-hop fan.

This Friday night, Brooks will make his first appearance of 2023 as he looks to make history by becoming the first simultaneous MMA and submission grappling world champion. Standing in his way of that task will be reigning ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci, who will look to add another name to his impressive hit list en route to a third-straight title defense.

Before Jarred Brooks attempts to add another 26-pounds of ONE Championship gold to his collection, the current strawweight titleholder spoke with the promotion about some of his hobbies away from combat sports. Specifically his appreciation for poetry and its many forms:

“I feel like it's just been tuned with my soul really well, and I can speak fast,” Brooks said. “And when you mix both of those together, a lot of people don't know what rap or what rap actually means. It means rhythmic artistic poetry. Right? So you just stay on rhythm, which is mostly drums and I love drums. And I'm artistic. I'm a mixed martial artist. And I'm a poet. I love to speak.”

Brooks, like his opponent, will go into ONE Fight Night 13 with an undefeated record inside the circle. Will ‘The Monkey God’ make history in his highly anticipated return, or will Mikey Musumeci secure his status as the best submission grappler in the world today?

Amazon Prime Video subscribers in North America can catch all the action at ONE Fight Night 13 live and for free in U.S. primetime on August 4.