Newly-crowned ONE Strawweight World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks reveals how he bested Joshua “The Passion” Pacio on the feet earlier this month to capture the latter’s gold.
Brooks’ coronation came at ONE 164 in front of Pacio’s most rabid supporters at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines, where he beat the Team Lakay star via clear cut decision to end the Filipino’s three-year reign.
In that match, Brooks surprisingly held his own against Pacio on the feet, countering and standing in the pocket for some wild exchanges.
The American thinks his edge in the striking game came as a result of Pacio thinking that Brooks would shoot more often.
“He’s definitely attached to his game. I think that’s what brought my stand-up out a little bit more against him, because he was worried about the takedowns,” he said.
“That was my game plan past the second [round]. If I couldn’t get the takedown, at least fake it to where it’s like a stance-check in wrestling, and then go on and use whatever [I needed] to use as far as [my] tools in [my] game plan.”
For Brooks, it was domination for much of the fight.
Because Brooks imposed his will and threatened with takedowns, Pacio never really got his groove going, allowing “The Monkey God” to pick his shots and take control of the match from the get-go.
Sure, Pacio had his moments, but from the second Brooks landed his first takedown, his confidence rose.
“You have to set the tone right away in the fight that you’re the bully, you’re the bigger brother. And if he heels, then you take advantage of it,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, Joshua Pacio [was] dangerous in every portion of that 25 minutes. You got to treat anybody like they’re dangerous in a fight. It doesn’t matter who it is. So, I know what I was capable of, and what I did in that fight was not survival mode, but I was in kill mode.”