Jarred Brooks says Joshua Pacio has been slacking off at Lions Nation MMA: “They’re half-a**ing their workouts”

Ahead of his rematch with a former foe, Jarred Brooks isn’t confident that his opponent is pushing as hard as him ahead of their contest.

The reigning ONE strawweight MMA world champion is never afraid to call things exactly how he sees them, regardless of who is in the firing line.

This was the case in his first encounter with Joshua Pacio at ONE 164 and it’s certainly the same for their rematch at ONE 166: Qatar on March 1.

Jarred Brooks believes that ahead of facing ‘The Passion’ at ONE’s Qatar debut in the Lusail Sports Arena, he has been pushing harder than before to ensure that he is even better this time around.

During an interview with The MMA Superfan, ‘The Monkey God’ gave a critical assessment of whether or not he believes that his opponent is doing the same:

“They aren't working the same, they're half-a**ing their workouts, they're doing like, ‘Oh, we're going to hop over each other and we're going to do army crawls underneath of each other,’ like that's what I did in third grade man. It’s not a great workout for me, you know.”

Watch the full interview below:

Jarred Brooks is out to close this chapter for good

Jarred Brooks may have beaten Joshua Pacio once before in convincing fashion but that doesn’t mean he is short on motivation for this rematch.

‘The Monkey God’ is approaching this fight as his opportunity to solidify his title reign, close this chapter, and move on to new and exciting challenges.

His desire to beat Pacio even more convincingly this time around is fuelling him to approach this fight with a fresh feeling of hunger.

Brooks is clearly not underestimating his opponent, though, regardless of what he thinks about his training.

ONE 166: Qatar will air live and free via Prime Video for North American viewers with an active subscription on March 1.