United States mixed martial arts fighter Jarred Brooks celebrates after defeating Bokang Masunyane at ONE 156 in Singapore
J
arred Brooks will face ONE strawweight world champion Joshua Pacio in his next outing following an impressive first-round victory over Bokang Masunyane at ONE 156 last week, and he has already predicted an “easy fight.”
"The Monkey God” has bagged home three dominant victories against elite ONE Championship strawweights in the past six months, and that gives him the confidence he needs against the long-time reigning champion.
While he can’t reveal the date yet, Brooks has said that the title fight will happen in the near future.
“I can’t release the date unfortunately, but it’s going to be sooner rather than later. If Joshua takes it. Joshua, you better take it,” he said in a post-fight interview.
“As you can see, I fought three times in the past six months, it’s going to be four here really soon. My plan is to fight five times by the end of the year, and I’m just going to keep on going through this cycle. Man, that’s what I love.”
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Pacio has been undefeated in the last three years since he dethroned Yosuke Saruta to reclaim the strawweight title in April 2019. The Filipino champion is 20-3 since making his professional debut in 2013.
Brooks, however, is confident that beating “The Passion” is an easy task and believes that the defending champion is not better his Team Lakay teammate Lito Adiwang that Brooks submitted last November.
“I see [the fight with Pacio going] like Lito Adiwang, just maybe a little bit easier. Lito is more explosive, but I’d say Joshua is a little bit more technically savvy and has more patience, so we’ll see how that fight goes. But I think it would be similar. I’d choke him out in the first or second round. Hopefully, it’ll be in the next two months so I can get a World Title and get the big belt,” the 28-year-old claimed.
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This article is published in collaboration with ONE Championship