“That was a strategic error” - Chatri Sityodtong says one mistake led to Jarred Brooks’ defeat at ONE 171

ONE Championship Chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong believes one mistake kept Jarred Brooks from becoming the undisputed ONE strawweight MMA world champion.

Stepping back into the main event spotlight at ONE 171: Qatar, 'The Monkey God' was favored to trade in his interim strawweight strap for undisputed gold against longtime rival Joshua Pacio. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

In the opening round of their highly anticipated trilogy fight, Brooks nearly notched an early finish after catching Pacio in multiple submission attempts.

However, despite his best effort, Pacio was able to fight out of each one and ultimately made it to the second stanza where he pounded out an impressive TKO with less than a minute to go in the round.

Speaking at the ONE 171 post-fight press conference, Sityodtong said he believes Brooks made one fatal error in his desperate attempt to finish Pacio:

"You know, Jared Brooks was so close to finishing the fight with a guillotine, and then with a d'arce, and then with a guillotine and a d'arce, it was a crazy, crazy thing. But I think one critical error that Jarred made was you can't hold on to a submission for four minutes".

"So I know for the second round, his arms are completely gassed. I know his cardio was really done, and so I think that was a strategic error."

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Jarred Brooks speaks out following the loss to Joshua Pacio at ONE 171: Qatar

Jarred Brooks was understandably dejected by the loss, but he took it all in stride and vowed to come back even better. Taking it to Instagram, he captioned a post:

"I will be back I will stay strong I will learn. Forces were against me these past few months, s#@t I was even. Olympus is a task, I’m willing to climb. Watch me. 1 fight away and we are back in title contention again."

With one of Pacio's wins over Brooks coming via disqualification, there's certainly an argument to make for booking a fourth meeting between the two strawweight MMA stars.

Should their trilogy become a quadrilogy, or does 'The Monkey God' need to go out and win one before getting another crack at the division's top prize?

If you missed any of the action, you can watch the full ONE 171: Qatar replay on demand via watch.onefc.com.