ONE Interim Strawweight MMA World Champion Jarred “The Monkey God” Brooks knows that it’s personal between him and current divisional ruler Joshua “The Passion” Pacio – not because they hate each other, but because of what’s at stake.
Undisputed divisional supremacy will be on the line when Brooks and Pacio unify the ONE Strawweight MMA World Title in the main event of ONE 171: Qatar next week, February 20, at Lusail Sports Arena in Doha.
While they both want bragging rights of being the best strawweight on the planet, Brooks knows that his livelihood is on the line as well. And he expects Pacio to feel the same entering this contest.
“I don’t even call myself ‘The Monkey God’ right now. I think that this is me, period, as a person. This is very personal for me as a fighter and this is personal for Joshua, I’m guessing as well, because we just have so much history,” he said.
“But this is definitely more personal for me. This is about my family, and this is about my family’s future, and I think that the only way to get that future is to eliminate the task at hand, which is Joshua Pacio.”
Brooks expects a better version of Pacio come fight night, as he’s had the chance to focus on training and get better during the last year.
But ultimately, Brooks believes he has improved even more than Pacio, especially since he stayed active over the past 12 months.
“I think that with him, he had more time to shuffle up his game a little bit,” Brooks said.
“But if it takes a long time, all of that stuff is all shuffled up and sometimes you forget about that mistake that you made in the first place. What I’m saying with Pacio is with time, you can forget the mistakes that you made.
“I think the advantage that I have is I’m looking at the mistakes that I’ve made in the past three fights from Pacio, Gustavo [Balart], and Reece [McLaren], and I’m mending them altogether in a short amount of time. I think that you guys are going to see a more diverse and a better version of Jarred Brooks.”
