ONE Strawweight World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks wants to meet his old rival Joshua “The Passion” Pacio once more in an MMA fight when his incursion to submission grappling is all said and done.
Brooks takes on BJJ wizard Mikey “Darth Rigatoni” Musumeci for the latter’s ONE Flyweight Submission Grappling World Title at ONE Fight Night 13: Allazov vs. Grigorian inside Lumpinee Boxing Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on August 5.
While the wrestler has been focused on claiming his second World Title in a different sport, he’s not taking his eyes off his division. In fact, he wishes to dance with his Filipino rival once more after this.
“I think that [Joshua Pacio] needs to either go against me or he needs to go against Gustavo Balart. I think that would be a good fight. Either way, it will show where Gustavo lies in the whole division,” he said.
“But yeah, I think Josh is still ranked number one. I didn’t beat him crazy bad, so I could see how they would want to rematch. But besides that, I think that Josh needs to fight again before he fights me.” While the buildup to their fight was highly heated, the two have grown a mutual respect for each other since.
There really isn’t any doubt that Brooks won the first match, but the American still wants Pacio, knowing he will only get better after every match.
While Brooks was able to take Pacio down quickly in the first round of that encounter, the Filipino adjusted in the ensuing rounds, effectively stopping most of the American’s takedowns for the rest of the contest.
For “The Monkey God,” it’s him and Pacio leading the strawweight division.
“Pacio was the best in the division. I think that he’s got his wrestling down pat, his striking has always been good, he’s always knocked people out,” he said.
“I think that me and Pacio, at the end of the day, would be a better look for the strawweight division.”
As for the rest of the division? They better keep up as Brooks believes him and Pacio are only going to get better and better.
“A huge message to every strawweight out there in my division. Work hard, man, I want to fight every one of you guys,” he said.
”If you guys are f—– around, it isn’t fair to me. It isn’t fair to my family, and it isn’t fair to ONE Championship and the fans. Quit f—— around.”