Jarred Brooks thinks people are underestimating his grappling ability ahead of match with Mikey Musumeci

ONE strawweight world champion Jarred Brooks has a message for his detractors, who are already counting him out against Mikey Musumeci.

On August 4, in the co-main event of ONE Fight 13: Allazov vs. Grigorian on Prime Video, ‘The Monkey God’ will look to add a second world title to his trophy case by unseating the seemingly unbeatable ONE flyweight submission grappling king.

Despite Brooks’ impressive 4-0 run in ONE Championship so far, he will be entering this champion vs. champion match as the underdog, considering this will be his first foray into submission grappling.

The 125-pound kingpin, after all, is an MMA fighter to the core, finding success with his high-pressure wrestling and unforgiving ground and pound. This time, however, he won’t be able to use his fists and must find a way to overcome Musumeci’s virtuosic mastery of the grappling arts.

While Brooks is aware of the perils of facing Musumeci in his wheelhouse, he made it clear that he won’t be like a deer in the headlights come fight time.

The 30-year-old said in a South China Morning Post interview:

“People will sit there and go ‘hmm, that’s a very very brash way of saying that you can beat Mikey’ right? But, people sleep on my grappling abilities as well and you know I’d go with world champions, black belts, and brown belts, all day in no-gi and I’d do very well and they would tell me that I would do very well.”

In all fairness, Musumeci is unlike any other black belt we’ve ever seen before.

‘Darth Rigatoni’ is also 4-0 in the Singapore-based promotion, with two successful world title defenses on his belt. The Evolve MMA superstar most recently submitted IBJJF No-Gi World Champion Osamah Almarwai with a textbook rear-naked choke at ONE Fight Night 10 last May.

Brooks has certainly taken note of that match and we’ll see if he has discovered a way to unravel Musumeci’s unsolvable puzzle.

ONE Fight Night 13 will emanate from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok on August 4 and will air live and free for those with a Prime Video membership in North America.

Watch Brooks's full interview with SCMP MMA below: