It hasn’t even been made official yet, but ONE Strawweight MMA World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks is already taking shots at his prospective next challenge, Joshua “The Passion” Pacio.
There are a lot of talks about a potential rematch between Brooks and Pacio, and the American is wasting no time in trying to get into his opponent’s head entering that meeting.
Pacio beat #5-ranked Mansur Malachiev in his return to The Home of Martial Arts last October, setting up a potential rematch against “The Monkey God” but Brooks is far from impressed.
“I thought that it was a really boring fight. It was like striker versus wrestler, you know what I’m saying?” the divisional kingpin offered.
“Which Mansur did hit him with a spinning back fist in and half of a spinning back kick. But I mean, if you look at Mansur’s fights, he’s like a three trick pony. You know, there’s a shot, it’s a jab, or it’s a spinning attack.”
He did credit the #1-ranked contender for having answers to the Russian’s wrestling, but ultimately, that fight wasn’t his cup of tea as he believes that Malachiev didn’t really offer much to Pacio outside of his bread and butter on the canvas.
Compare that to how he performed against the Filipino, where he gamely engaged Pacio in the striking department, then one would get where Brooks is coming from.
“I mean, Pacio was very hard to get past his guard and break his guard. He’s super flexible with his hips, but besides that, I thought it was kind of a boring fight,” he said.
“I’m not going to sit there and say that [Pacio’s] bad or anything. I just thought that it was a boring fight. But yeah, I think that me and Pacio are way better dance partners compared to Mansur and Pacio.”
And when that rematch happens, he intends to prove there’s no 125er or athletes in a couple of weight classes above in the promotion that could hold a candle against him.
”I feel like none of these strawweights are on my level. They all look good against each other, but when it comes down to me, it looks like I’m on a whole ‘nother level,” he said.
“If I’m going up a weight class, I’m gonna fight for either an interim belt or for the full title.”