Jarred Brooks talks about Joshua Pacio’s takedown defense

'The Monkey God' Jarred Brooks was able to capture the ONE strawweight world championship from the long-reigning champion Joshua Pacio after five hard-fought rounds at ONE 164.

In the main event, Brooks felt the takedown defense of Pacio and was highly impressed. 'The Monkey God' comes from a highly credentialed wrestling background, and he was surprised by how 'The Passion', a natural striker, was able to negate him during their exchanges.

In the ONE 164 post-event press conference, Jarred Brooks explained:

"[Joshua Pacio] was tripping. He tripped in the first round, so that wasn’t even necessarily a takedown. If you train with anybody I train with, I take them down. And that’s in the United States. So kudos to Joshua Pacio for having amazing takedown defense. That’s like Jose Aldo level takedown defense."

Jarred Brooks is referring to WEC and UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, who was known for his legendary takedown defense. Over his 14-year-long career, Aldo had a takedown defense average of 91%.

The US-born Brooks knew that Joshua Pacio would be the biggest challenge of his professional career. The Filipino-born Pacio is a dangerous fighter who has won the vast majority of his fights via stoppage.

---

Jarred Brooks welcomes a Joshua Pacio rematch

After their five-round war, Jarred Brooks was crowned the new ONE strawweight world champion. It was a battle to capture the throne from Joshua Pacio.

During his post-fight press conference, the American fighter explained that he would happily give 'The Passion' a rematch. 'The Monkey God' explained:

"This isn’t the end with Joshua Pacio. We were just talking about it too. So, I would love to give him another chance in Denver in the United States. He can come to my home turf and we can see where it goes from there."

Considering how long Pacio was able to reign over this division and the style in which he was able to defend his throne, a rematch with 'The Passion' makes a lot of sense.

ONE 164 was hosted in Pacio's home nation of the Philippines. It sounds as though the US-born Brooks wants to fight Pacio on ONE Championship's US event ONE on Prime Video 10, scheduled for May 5.

Watch Brooks' full post-fight press conference from SCMP MMA below: