Jarred Brooks plans to execute a similar game plan for his upcoming rematch against Joshua Pacio.
In December 2022, Brooks earned a ONE strawweight MMA world title shot against Pacio after establishing a 3-0 promotional record. ‘The Monkey God’ continued his reign of terror by outgrappling the Filipino superstar to secure a unanimous decision win.
On March 1, Brooks and Pacio will meet again in the ONE 166: Qatar co-main event for a rematch. Ahead of the intriguing matchup, the reigning ONE strawweight MMA king had this to say during an interview with The MMA Superfan:
“So I think that Joshua is just going to come out and try to be a little bit more aggressive in the later rounds. But my job is to tire him out like I did the first time.”
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ONE 166: Qatar goes down inside the Lusail Sports Arena at Lusail Sports Arena. The event can be seen live and for free by North American viewers with an active Amazon Prime Video subscription.
Jarred Brooks discredits Joshua Pacio’s improvements since their first fight
Following his loss against Jarred Brooks, Joshua Pacio returned to action at ONE Fight Night 15 in Bangkok. Pacio took on then-undefeated grappler Mansur Malachiev and negated the Russian’s grappling to bounce back with a unanimous decision win.
Despite improvements shown by Pacio, Brooks isn’t worried about their upcoming rematch. ‘The Monkey God’ had this to say during the previously mentioned interview with The MMA Superfan:
“As an MMA fighter, I see Joshua working on his angles, his boxing, and stuff like that. I got a recipe for that too, man. I am not worried about whatever he’s been working on the past three months since he’s fought. How much better are you gonna get in three months? Besides your hunger and the things that are correlating when you go into the next fight.”
Brooks hasn’t defended his ONE strawweight MMA world title since defeating Pacio. With that said, the American superstar competed in a submission grappling match against ONE flyweight champion Mikey Musumeci. Brooks showcased a valiant effort before being submitted with a triangle armbar.
Watch Brooks' interview with The MMA Superfan below: