Jarred Brooks praises rival Joshua Pacio, but says he needs to win again before rematch

ONE strawweight world champion Jarred Brooks knows he will again face the man he took the title from, Joshua Pacio, somewhere down the line.

However, as far as ‘The Monkey God’ is concerned, the longtime 125-pound kingpin must first earn his right for a rematch by beating another top five opponent.

In a recent interview with ONE Championship, Brooks talked about the status of his division and addressed Pacio’s case for an immediate rematch.

While there’s certainly some public clamor to see a do-over between the two highest-rated fighters in the division, Brooks thinks ‘The Passion’ must first take out another streaking strawweight challenger, Gustavo Balart:

“Joshua [Pacio], I think that he needs to either go against me or he needs to go against Gustavo Balart. I think that would be a good fight. Either way, it will show where Gustavo lies in the whole division.”

Balart, currently ranked fourth in the strawweight pecking order, is on a three-fight winning streak. The Cuban wrestler outclassed former champion Alex Silva in his last outing.

Moreover, Brooks said Ballart should be a good test for Pacio in his first fight back after losing the belt, adding:

“But yeah, I think Josh is still ranked number one. I didn't beat him crazy bad, so I could see how they would want to rematch. But besides that, I think that Josh needs to fight again before he fights me.”

Rumblings of a rematch between Brooks and Pacio were rampant in recent months. The pair figured in an epic five-round war at ONE 164 in Pacio’s backyard at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines last year.

After 25 minutes of glorious action, Brooks got his hand raised following a dominant performance and ushered his reign as the new king of the division.

Rewatch Brooks's title-clinching performance below:

For now, the rematch must wait since Brooks will be chasing two-sport supremacy against ONE flyweight submission grappling world champion Mikey Musumeci.

‘The Monkey God’ will make his submission grappling debut on ONE Fight Night 13: Allazov vs. Grigorian on Prime Video on August 4 at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok.

The nine-fight spectacle will air live in US primetime free of charge for Prime Video subscribers in North America.