Jarred Brooks seeks real fight with Mikey Musumeci: “I'm definitely down with that matchup”

Reigning and undisputed ONE strawweight MMA world champion ‘The Monkey God’ Jarred Brooks said his grappling showdown with BJJ superstar ‘Darth Rigatoni’ Mikey Musumeci, when he challenged the Italian-American for the ONE flyweight submission grappling world title last August, was such an amazing experience.

The two met at ONE Fight Night 13, with Brooks moving up in weight to take on Musumeci on short notice after calling him out on social media. Musumeci ended up submitting Brooks inside of regulation to retain his belt.

Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Brooks talked about the ordeal, and said he was bummed out by the loss.

‘The Monkey God’ said:

“Mikey is a huge draw, period. But, you know, I want to be the huge draw at the end of the day, and submission grappling isn't a fight. It was a huge honor to go and get somebody like Mikey though, in his sport. I do consider it my sport as well, because I'm a mixed martial artist. So I do every martial art. So when people are just like, ‘It's not your sport.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, it is’. I consider that a loss.”

Recently, Musumeci has been seen training Muay Thai in Thailand with fellow ONE Championship stars Nong-O and Superbon, feeding speculation of a possible transition to MMA for ‘Darth Rigatoni’.

If Musumeci were to don the 4-ounce gloves and make a beeline for the Circle, Brooks says he’s more than willing to welcome him into a fight.

Brooks also said:

“I see Mikey is hitting mitts and everything like that now and getting into Muay Thai. I mean, dude, if he really wants to be about that life, then dude, come along with it. I thought he wasn't about that. That's why I didn't call him out after that. But if he wants to be about that, if he's just doing it for fun, then, you know, but if he's about that life, then ‘Come on, Mikey, I'm definitely down with that matchup.’”

Musumeci returns at ONE Fight Night 15 on Friday, October 6, where he is set to face former ONE lightweight MMA world champion ‘Tobikan Judan’ Shinya Aoki in an openweight submission grappling match.

Fans in the United States and Canada can catch all the action of ONE Fight Night 15 live and absolutely free on Amazon Prime Video.